Butterflies
by The-Mighty-Third-Draft
Summary: Life after Prometheus challenges Shaw to breaking point. While her Igogi son Sinashi makes friends with his own kind, David's neural net is evolving. With Shaw's heart undecided, David begins to pull strings to keep his unconventional family together, forming an unexpected connection and ensuring their survival when a deadly weapon is turned on its creator. Shaw/David/Atri various
1. Chrysalis

**_A/N - Disclaimer. I don't own Prometheus. Obviously. Or I'd be quite rich. Sinashi, Atraharsis, Xisuthros, Onyx and original supporting characters are mine. Enjoy ;)_**

**_Life after Prometheus challenges Shaw to breaking point. While her Igogi son, Sinashi makes friends with his own kind, David's neural net is evolving. With Shaw's heart undecided, David begins to pull strings to keep his unconventional family together, forming an unexpected connection and answering their most basic questions on life, death and love_. Pairings; Shaw/Engineer_, Shaw/David & slow-burning Shaw/David/Atri. _**

**_Rated M for rape, sexual references and sex scenes. _**

**_A few bits and pieces have now been edited too, so for those re-reading or here for the first time, the story should flow more smoothly now._**

_**Let me know what you think. Reviews are always appreciated.**  
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><p><strong><span>Butterflies<span>**

1. Chrysalis

The outer rings of a nearby gas giant backlit the lifeboat with an eerie, neon shimmer. There was enough radioactive vapour in the atmosphere to make the planet shine. As the pod sailed through the stream of energised matter, tendrils clung to the outer casing and for a while, six or seven days perhaps, the pod had a comets tail of its own. It was like the carapace of a beetle, only ridged and pitted with indentations. It bore stratches and a few dents, acquired from collisions with small asteroids. It was no bigger than a city bus.

Within the ships belly, the console was a small, green, six foot halo, drowned in the ribcage shadows of the pod, in the deep ocean silence of abandoned space. Code scrolled by dimly. Power saving was on. The ship could last another thousand years like this. This was the first time in twenty-six years that the messages had changed.

A red light popped up on the console.

**STASIS INTERRUPTED**

There was a pod inside the craft, set into the wall. It was ten feet long and ridged and pitted like the hull. There was a _click_ as the catches pulled apart. A _thunk_ as the door popped open.

**WARNING**

His eyes flickering in the aftermath of REM sleep, a humanoid with albino white skin began to wake. He came around faster than most. He was a seasoned traveller. He sat up suddenly and retched, cursed the life support module. He hated waking like this.

**PROXIMITY WARNING. UNKNOWN VESSEL**

His chiselled face was the prototype for beauty, he was the apex of human development. A once-soldier, ruined by drugs administered to make him strong, obedient, _perfect_. His nearly black eyes contained a surprising depth. He staggered free of the tubes and wires that had supplied him with oxygen and waste disposal in cryosleep and stood. His back cricked. It was cold here. His home planet was Anatak, a warm moon many orders of magnitude larger than Earth. It was in a distant system. His Mother was there, if she still lived, sitting under the bluish light of the supermassive sun. Wondering about him. He'd told her to stop worrying. He regretted it now.

**RANGE FIFTEEN HUNDRED MILES AND CLOSING**

He himself uncomfortably into the ships only flight chair and hit a button to his right. The computer woke. Inactive code began to execute. The Ships AI Module came online.

**GOOD MORNING, SIR. MAY I ARRANGE REFRESHMENT?**

'Later. What's this ship? Scan it. Who's onboard?'

He studied the readout. His confusion, his lagging tiredness, the aftereffects of hypersleep slowed him. He smiled.

'Somebody's on our side,' he grunted. 'Lay in an intercept course. Cloak until the last moment. An abandoned flagship is too great a chance to miss.'

**AT ONCE**

000

Elizabeth Shaw was almost curled out of necessity in the bowl of the knobbly navigator's seat. It was built for a body three times her size. The transparent displays were bigger put together than her bed back home. Everything on this ship was too big, too green, too black, too uncomfortable. The ship carried a wide array of educational material, but much could be learned from simple pornography. Her helmet sat nearby. She took it off sometimes, so she could see the displays better but it was always close by, in case of _incidents_.

The holo died abruptly. The shadows raced back in where the greenish glow had given her rudimentary comfort. The sudden quiet left her feeling a little empty. A little _alone_.

'David?'

David had decoded the matter synthesisers on board and built himself a brand new suit. It's grey skeletal design did nothing to enchance the believeability of his servile, childlike delight in everything he touched or saw. It was like watching a kid play with a machine gun. He was performing a mechanical autopsy on an alien medical scanner, which he believed could be used to fuse broken bones.

'Why do you wear that thing?'

He repeated himself. _Again._

'It helps me pilot the ship.'

Shaw knew that wasn't true.

'I've seen you pilot without it.'

The synthetic went silent. His roots had begun to show. His natural colour was a few shades darker than Lawrence of Arabia's blonde.

'You can't be _afraid?_' she prodded a bit deeper, hungry. Once she'd longed to understand David out of academic curiosity. She'd thought him strange, eerie, oddly beautiful. A scientific breakthrough. A _miracle_. All that had changed with Charlie's death. She had no proof, but she had an instinct.

If it hadn't been for David's ability to pilot the Leviathan, he be in pieces still; his twitching body collapsed stiffly in the spare navigator's chair, his head on the control deck, leaking hydraulic fluid and synthetic blood like thick cream, blinking spasmodically. Watching her. Innocent. _Like hell,_ thought Shaw.

Shaw wanted to tinker inside him and find out if Weyland had given him feelings. Fear. Compassion. Envy. Find out how she could _hurt_ him. Instead she prodded him with words like a child with a new pet. A pet that could bite.

'Because you're not a real boy. So what is it, David? Do you respect them?'

For a brief moment he looked very tired. David kept it from her, his gaze on his experiment. He kept his private thougths of cruelty, humanity, betrayal and God silent.

'What, may I ask, is wrong with that?' he said calmly.

Shaw shrugged.

'Maybe you _are_ afraid,' she conceded. 'How the hell would I know?'

David kept working, finding a deep stillness in the gentle, repetitive excavation and exploration by his supersensitive fingertips. Since his unexpected _update_ upon Weyland's death, he'd found physical things much more pleasing. Drinking. Eating. Sleeping. Speaking. The softness of his own tongue in his mouth. The tickle of his hair against his ears. He'd never noticed it before. He liked to focus on it.

'May I ask what you've discovered about their physiology?' he changed the subject.

Shaw tapped the console. It brought up an image of a female Engineer. She was nude, and pregnant.

'Oh, they're roughly mammalian. Warm blooded, suckle young and appear to give birth in a similar way to humans. Well. _Most _humans.'

David noticed the bait. He didn't rise to take it.

'You need to rest,' he said. 'Your body is still recovering from the infection and resulting...procedure.'

Shaw broke into a cold smile. Yes, she'd never forget that. David, who had opened her body and removing the festering remains of the severed umbilical cord and its attached ugly, rotten placenta. David, who had reopened the painted, toothless smile in her belly and cauterised the leaking blood vessels in her womb before she could bleed to death. David, who had cleaned away the stinking, infected flesh and stitched her back up. Like a beautiful ragdoll. He'd seen far more of her than she ever wished to acknowledge.

'Rest? With you skulking around?' It was nasty. She knew it.

David sighed, visibly frustrated.

'If I wanted you dead Doctor, I wouldn't have brought you back from your infection,' he spoke with exaggerated patience, like a parent to a difficult child. 'I thought we might be of benefit to each other. Why do you still find it so hard to trust me?'

'Because you're an evil little shit?' Shaw said simply.

Her eyes filled with tears and her throat with a sudden lump. She'd tried to avoid talking about the Prometheus but every time she saw David's perfectly sculpted face she wanted to slap him.

'You killed him,' she breathed, very softly.

David heard her. His ears were ten times more sensitive than a humans. Slowly, his fingers stilled.

'I would rather not dig up the past again, doctor. For _your_ sake, if not mine.'

Her eyes hardened.

David wasn't afraid of the cavernous ship, or of the deep silences that came between mechanical echoes. Bumps in the endless night. He wasn't really afraid to be alone either but he liked humans. He was so very human himself. _Mostly_ human. So close that he frightened them. They were all he'd ever known. He wasn't ready to sever that bond just yet. When she looked at him like that, her hate, confusion, her grief showing so plainly; he felt wrong. It felt similar to the way Mr Weyland had sometimes made him feel, when he failed to smile, or failed to praise David's efforts.

'I just want to hear you say it,' she choked.

David hesitated, but then, decision made, he nodded.

'Very well, then. Yes. I infected Dr Holloway. But I didn't know, at the time, what would happen. Do you feel any better?'

'Bastard.'

David gazed at her with his imperturbable dolls eyes. Shaw wanted to kill him.

'I don't suppose you would hear an apology? Even though I know it will not bring back Dr Holloway, or lessen your grief?'

'Why the hell would I want your apologies?' Shaw breathed. 'Every word that comes out of your mouth is bullshit.'

'No,' David said. 'Every word that comes out of my mouth is what humans_ want to hear_. That, is how I was programmed. I was also programmed to follow orders. Orders that Mr Weyland made quite clear. I admit there was leeway in the exact method. I could have chosen anyone. Why don't you ever ask me why I didn't choose you?'

'Why?' She couldn't help herself.

'Because you were kind,' he said very softly. 'You thanked me. When I saved your life.'

'My mistake,' she said softly.

'I didn't mean to kill Dr Holloway. I meant to do as my creator had asked me. Should I have abandoned Mr Weyland?'

Shaw didn't like where this was going. She felt her face begin to crumple. She didn't have an answer for him, or for Charlie's ghost.

'I am sorry, Dr Shaw. Perhaps, if you'd allow me to help you now, you'll see that a lot has changed. In me. Mr Weyland is dead. Certain programming has become...defunct.'

She managed to calm her breathing enough to say;

'You mean you changed it.'

'I believe that Mr Weyland intended me to be...free. Once he was gone. After all, I was designed to imitate human beings, down to the last detail. What better test of my capabilities that the choice between good and evil?'

He looked at his own hand. He frowned. 'Just like you. I've been reborn, Elizabeth. But now I have noone to serve and no family of my own.'

'You're telling me, that you could even _consider_ the possibility, of having a family?' she asked incredulously.

'Mr Weyland was my family. In a strange way, Miss Vickers was too, though I'm certain she never thought of me that way.'

He turned to face her full on. He stood just breathing. Peaceful._ Honest.  
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'I am not human and yet I look like you, walk like you, breathe like you. Where else do you propose I go, if not with you?'

Shaw swallowed hard. He began breathing, suddenly.

'To hell?'

David returned her grin with bitter amusement. Then he said calmly;

'Perhaps it's a matter of perception, Dr Shaw, but I believe we just left it.'

000

In the lifeboat, a bald white head was visible over the high-backed control chair. He pressed buttons left and right, bringing the pod closer to the great, disc-like ship. It was a military ship, decomissioned B Class, Scientific Exploration and Salvage. It's name was emblazoned brightly on its hull.

_**LEVIATHAN**_

All but one of the thirty two escape pods had been ejected. Their housings were like vacant little bug-holes in the soft underbelly of a whale. The rear starboard hull glowed with pinprick lights that peirced the endless deep. He could see his native plants, red and purple, and the trunks of stark, white trees. He hailed the Leviathan on a secure frequency. He was a hijacker who had stolen their ships before, who had his inside information.

A black terminal window popped up in the transparent console.

**TRANSMISSION RECEIVED.**

**LEVIATHAN COMMAND CONTROL; STATE AUTHORISATION CODE.**

He pulled a severed hand from a bag by the chair. There was nothing attached to it except a bit of bone and suit. He pressed the fingertip to the DNA sensor and the lifeboat beamed across his stolen credentials.

**AUTHORISATION ACCEPTED, GENERAL MIDIAN.**

**SHIP STATUS; LEVEL TWO INFESTATION. UKNOWN CARBON BASED LIFE FORM. SHIP CLASSIFIED; UNINHABITABLE.**

'Open hatch seven and prepare to dock. Isolate sectors nine, ten, eleven, twelve and close containment doors,' he said.

He'd trap them in the control room. The lifeboat shuddered as it docked. He grabbed the bag; he'd certainly need it again. He took a weapon from the gun rack on his way to the airlock then on second thoughts, snatched another and holstered it on his back. A scanner built into his suit bleeped a tiny warning as it merged with the onboard AI.

**WARNING **

**ALIEN LIFE FORMS PRESENT**

** 80% CHANCE OF HOSTILE BEHAVIOURS **

**95% CHANCE OF UNKNOWN CONTAGION**

** FOREIGN WEAPONRY DETECTED**

At control room door nine, put his ear to the metal. It was slightly warm. The ship had been powered up for some time, long enough for the heating, lighting and water filtration to become self propagating. Long enough to stabilise a breathable atmosphere. A couple of months, he was guessing. How long had it been since the crew ejected? The alien language was distant and filtered by complex carbon alloy, but he could make out the odd word. It sounded like something he'd heard before.

000

The containment doors hissed shut. David glanced up at them, confused. Shaw was curled in the navigation chair. He went to the console.

'David?'

'My authorisation codes are no longer working. Doctor. I think there may be someone else on board.'

Shaw grabbed for her helmet.

'I think, it may be a little late for that,' he murmured.

Then one of the pressure doors hissed open.

'Oh my God. David. Look.'

'Oh, dear,' he said despondently, moving his hands slowly away from the console.

The albino giant unsheathed his weapon smoothly and pointed it at their feet. His guttural, heavy-metal language was all too familiar.

'He asks how we gained control of the ship,' said David.

'Tell him it was abandoned.'

So David did.

'He asks us if we intend to claim salvage rights.'

'Definitely,' Shaw nodded.

The Engineer cocked his weapon. He pointed the muzzle at Shaw's heart. David pushed her smoothly behind him. Shaw's breath came faster.

'Oh God, David-' she was gripping his shoulder. She didn't care. He didn't notice.

David translated;

'He says; To the winner go the spoils.'

'Tell him we don't want to fight!'

The Engineer produced a small, black marble. It emitted a high frequency whine on startup, then settled as he rolled it along the floor towards them. David touched her wrist to stay her panic.

'David?' she breathed.

The orb shimmered. Her skin was pleasantly warm. They waited.

A containment field sprang out of the ball, some twenty feet wide by ten feet high. David relaxed. Shaw murmured her relief.

He reached out.

'Wait David, you don't know what it could do-'

The containment field gave him a sharp shock. The charge dissipated into his suit.

'Interesting,' he mused.

The Engineer wasn't so proficient in the ships systems as David. He seemed new to the technology but to their dismay they soon felt the shudder and inertia as the Leviathan changed course.

'David?' Shaw whispered, their arguments temporarily shelved. 'We have to stop him. Where's he taking us?'

'It's alright, Doctor. Let me try and talk to him. He may be afraid of a possible contagion.'

Shaw wanted to make a snappy comeback. Something like; _that went great last time we tried it._ Somehow the words turned to ash in her mouth.

David examined the field. Shaw mused then; his sleek, athletic design must be aesthetic, rather than practical. She was sure he'd be just as capable if he were fat and ugly.

How long had it been since she last slept properly? Trying to decide if David was going to poison her, or strangle her in her sleep? A day? A week? She didn't know. She did know she had neither the energy or the emotional reserve for being killed a second time.

For a few minutes the Engineer addressed David in a back-and-forth until curiosity brought the big man to the edge of their cage. Shaw felt like a labrat.

'What did he say?' Shaw sought David's eyes.

'He said; We're to turn control of the ship over to him. Or he'll kill us both. He was very...specific.'

'Can we at least use the toilet? If he's going to keep us in here?'

'He says; he'll fetch you a bucket. I am sorry, Dr Shaw.'

She closed her eyes and said nothing. Hours passed.

Shaw tried to sleep. David sat cross-legged, watching their host as he programmed a huge meal from the synthesisers and devoured it like a starving man. Now and then Shaw woke, sweaty, uncomfortable, memories of her nightmares fresh. Once, David stroked his hair back slickly and murmured, like an actor practising his lines;

_'The trick, William Potter, is not minding, that it hurts.'_

The albino thumped his rifle against the containment field. It quavered and sparked. Shaw jumped awake, damp with sweat. His voice shook her bones. David returned something. For a minute they conversed.

'What's going on?' Shaw asked anxiously.

'He asks if you're grown Doctor. I suggest we lie.'

'Why?' Shaw whispered. 'Why would we need to lie? Oh God.'

David spoke. The Engineer holstered his weapon, seeing he didn't need it. Then with one hand he gestured to Shaw.

'This is most awkward,' David said.

'What? What's he saying?'

'He says...there is only one use for a woman aboard a starship. I took the liberty of telling him you were my wife. I hope you don't mind.'

Her brain sharpened on the edge of panic. 'No. I don't mind, but what makes you think he'll even honour that?'

'His culture seems to,' David informed her.

Then suddenly, the containment field lifted and the Engineer grabbed Shaw by her arm. He thrust David back inside. Reluctantly, David let go of her only because he didn't want her to go to her rape with a broken wrist.

'Try to stay calm,' he said, his sympathetic blue eyes fixed on her with something close to regret. 'Don't fight him, Doctor. It will only make it worse.'

The Engineer's pitch black eyes were on her face. With two fingers he pushed her hair back. It was almost gentle.

'Take your hands off me,' Shaw said flatly.

He rumbled a sentence, which David translated rather regretfully.

'He says that you are a little small, but you will have to do.'

'No!' Shaw yelled, when the Engineer set off. She struggled. 'No! David, _stop him!'_

'I am truly sorry, Dr Shaw,' he called after her, his gloved hands sparking in the containment field. It hurt. He watched her face disappear around the corner.

'Don't do this!' she staggered after him.

He took her into a tiny storage room. There was a table in there. Her knees buckled against it. He kicked the door shut and locked it one handed. He grabbed her. She scratched at his hands and drew black blood but he shoved her onto her back. The Engineer's chest met her palms. He rumbled something and then caressed her hair almost gently.

Shaw shivered violently. She shook her head. His eyes were blacker than space.

'No,' her voice was little more than a whisper. 'No. Please. Don't do this.'

There was noone there to witness. Noone to remember how swiftly she changed from a grown woman into a frightened girl. He was so strong. He lifted her closer to his body, his voice deep. He stroked her face, her throat. He tried to calm her. Her tears spilled over. She felt like a child in the hands of an angry God.

He tore her suit free, impatient with the zip. She screamed. It was the first time in her adult life she'd screamed for anything except Charlie's incineration. The tug of rubber left welts in her skin. He tugged it down her legs and cast it aside with her shoes. His thumbs hooked under her thin linen underwear, remnants of the Prometheus. He murmured something to her, leaned in, smelled her hair and tore off her bra. She could smell him, his skin, his rancid breath, his sweat. Musky, dark, disturbingly _human._

He freed himself from a panel in his suit, huge, white, engorged, wet. Shaw trembled, trapped against the wall like a child in a nightmare. His thumbs rubbed her thin, red caesarian scar, fast healing after David worked out the alien medbay.

Shaw could hear her own gasping sobs. He caught her hands, pressed them down. He groaned as her body gave way for him.

David heard her scream. He flinched, his hands fizzing, pain shooting up his arms. Then she cried out.

'NO!' It echoed down the long corridors. He flinched. Inside him, something burned. Something vital.

Whatever Mr Weyland had not considered a soul, clenched down. He looked at his hands. Then his eyes flicked to the console where the Engineer had left his weapon. He stripped off the alien gloves. Her voice echoed again. He pushed his bare fingers into the field. It flickered, fizzled, but it detected no organic life, and let him pass.

'Hmmm,' said David, perplexed. 'Interesting.'

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><p>TBC<p> 


	2. Unfoldment

2. Unfoldment

Shaw stared at the wall. Tears cut down her face but she ignored them, stubborn and hard. The engineer grunted like a man who'd gone too long. His soft eyelashes flickered against her face, lace wings of white butterflies. Warm. Pain stabbed through her caesarian scar. Little tears appeared inside her where he outmatched her for size. She was shaking, hate and fury bubbling in her throat; a spiky, unswallowable fir cone. She struggled to get enough air as he groaned, pressed his body into hers. His movements became shaky, jagged, like his breath. Then he shuddered, drove her against the wall with a grunt. And relaxed.

Something went _click_ at his temple.

In his post orgasmic stupor, he was too slow to react. His head exploded. Blood spurted from his open skull, coating her body in thick, stinking black.

David lifted the engineer with inhuman strength. The corpse tumbled onto the black grid floor. Shaw scrambled away, panting, her insides burning. There was blood on her thighs. She snatched the rifle.

'Bastard!'

She shot him again in the chest, again and again. What was left of his jaw exploded into tic-tac shards of white and black. David walked through the noise and ricochet fearlessly and disarmed her.

'Elizabeth,' he rubbed her elbows gently. 'Enough. Enough. He's dead.'

Shaw looked down at her own naked body. Her knees gave out. David caught her.

'W-Why are you naked?' she breathed, into his hair. It was surprisingly soft. Surprisingly _real._

He was warm too, like a man. Just this once perhaps, she found him comforting. _That's a lie_, she thought. _I always found him comforting. It's just...Charlie._

'I'm afraid it was the only way to escape the containment field. Forgive me. Perhaps it's best, if you don't look down.'

'I won't,' she promised.

He lifted her easily. The overhead strip lights had no visible fixings. Shaw counted them. Her tears slipped down her cheeks, dripping onto David's bare arms. Seventeen. Eighteen. He placed her on the soft, warm, alien med room gurney.

'I am...sorry,' he said, tactfully. 'The door was very difficult, without his access code.'

Shaw gazed at him.

'David-' she choked. 'The forcefield. It could have killed you.'

'I was fairly sure it wouldn't,' he said. He frowned softly. 'Of course. I had no way of knowing for certain. Until I walked through it.'

For a moment his eyes were far away, in possibility.

'Thank you.'

Pain lanced through her abdomen. She stung intolerably.

'David. Please. Get me a mirror.'

David pressed his fine, shell coloured lips together and gazed at her peacefully.

'Of course,' he said.

Shaw waited until he'd left the room and then tentatively she lowered the glass and looked. She pulled it away quickly. For a few minutes she considered stitching it up herself but there was no way to do it tidily without help. She punched the soft, pillow-like formation beneath her, tears streaming down her face.

'David!' her voice was reedy, thin.

He opened the door.

'I-' the words stuck in her throat. 'I need you to...help me.'

'I understand,' he said evenly.

David produced a strange devide attached to a tube from a nearby fixing. He wheeled her closer so the hose would reach.

'Forgive me,' she said. 'I need to see what blood is yours.'

He washed her. The water was warm. She scrubbed herself with her hands, watched the blood come away. When it was done and he'd rinsed and disinfected his hands, he placed a towel over her chest and belly. It was a silly gesture of modesty, considering, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

Shaw felt a trail of blood trickle from between her legs. She shut her eyes tightly. She felt sick, like her stomach was trying to roll over. She could taste his mouth in hers. She could feel where the bruises would come up, big purple splotches on her hips that would last days and remind her.

_You can take my body, but it's not me. You can take my body, but it's not me. _She repeated it in her head. It seemed to help.

She turned her face to the wall. She didn't want to see his blonde head peering down at her most intimate parts. She felt the pull and tug as he patiently sutured up the tearing, is face an impassive as ever. He might have been studying a new language, or reading a medical textbook. Engrossed in his work as he was, Shaw felt no sense of shame in him. No embarassment or awkwardness at his position. She supposed that was a blessing in itself.

His fingers were gentle. It still hurt. He passed a fine needle through the small tears just inside her.

David might have hummed as he worked, but he suspected she'd think him irreverent.

'The bleeding seems to have stopped,' he said gently. 'How is the pain?'

'Sharp,' she said dully.

David could see the glisten of tears on her cheeks.

'Is there any pain...inside your body?'

'Yes,' a whisper.

He delved deeper, a surgeon going to work with a tiny, hand-held light. He could only guess what she was feeling. Feeling was a concept that was supposed to be alien to him, but he understood the reactions, chemical and otherwise that humans underwent to certain situations. Sometimes he wondered if Mr Weyland had intended his understandings to become so...intense. So second nature.

'I appreciate...that you may not appreciate my sentiments, Elizabeth,' he said softly. 'But, it's just a body. Isn't it? Flesh and blood.'

'Yes,' she whispered, gratefully.

He knew that Shaw was humiliated, ashamed and angry. And afraid. He wasn't supposed to feel any of those things. His highly logical thought process had already concluded that this was simply a medical emergency, and that the vaginal tearing could result in infection. But there was something else there too. A spot of warmth. Gratitude welled up from within. Gratitude that she was alive, that he wouldn't have to be alone.

His fingers slipped. She gasped.

'My apologies,' he said quickly, his face carefully guarded to disguise his strange realisation. 'The lubricating jelly has made it rather difficult. Are you alright?'

Shaw just nodded. Then as he inspected more deeply, he withdrew both hands and the light and said;

'I believe, that will do it. I'll fetch you something more suitable to wear.'

He walked by the table. Shaw gripped his hand. He stopped dead.

'David, I-' she tried. Her eyes were full of tears. 'Thank you.'

With a little incline of his head he acknowledged her gratitude and a strange new feeling washed over him. Kinship. It felt warming, reassuring. He liked it.

'It was no pleasure, Dr Shaw,' he offered a little smile. 'Will you be OK? While I'm gone?'

A tiny nod. He decided not to waste any time in fetching those clothes.

000

David studied the containment field extensively while Shaw busied herself for long hours at the console, watching holo after holo. They seemed to be training videos, giving examples of combat situations. Then deep down in a submenu, in a protected file she found a few clips.

'David,' she called him over. 'Help me decode this, please?'

'Certainly.'

He ran his new translator program on them and Shaw was amazed to see that it converted the file names into a decent approximation of English.

'You didn't tell me you'd written a translator,' she seemed very pleased. David felt warmth blossom inside him. 'Is that what you do while I'm sleeping?'

He smiled.

'It's rudimentary, but...I believe, it can make clear the general subject matter.'

Shaw gazed at him.

'I think it's clever. Very clever.'

The file name transformed read '_Mother and I._' Shaw barely registered. David smiled. For a moment her brown eyes met his. David felt a pleasant warmth spread through his chest. Acceptance. Enjoyment of her praise. He revelled in the feeling for as long as it lasted.

'Thank you,' he murmured, genuinely.

Shaw played the file. David heard the little glitch in her breathing. She stilled, her surprise palpable. A naked male Engineer was leaning over a female. Her more slender frame fit perfectly against his. He was holding her hip in one hand and thrusting deeply while she teased his bottom lip with her teeth. She seemed to be enjoying it, judging by the way she panted and urged him on with her heels and hands. Shaw went pale. Her hands trembling she fumbled for the controls. David leaned down, hit a button. The pair vanished, leaving behind them a vacant, uncomfortable silence.

'So they're as sick as we are,' she muttered.

She fixed her eyes on the floor to hide their sudden redness. She busied herself finding some freeze-dried coffee in the supplies they'd brought from the lifeboat.

'Good to know.'

David made a note of the location of the files, copied them to his private data archive, and kept them for later. They filled him with a strange feeling. Curiosity. Intrigue. Excitement. He would be a silent, immortal witness to their secret lives. That pleased him. David was curious, as he was curious about everything. He especially liked secrets.

000

Shaw leaned over the weird alien toilet, her head in her hands. She was sweating, trembling like a newborn foal. She'd spent the night getting up and down to throw up. David had provided her with a loose fitting tank top and pyjama bottoms. They were soaked with sweat.

She found him at the console. He rarely needed sleep. When he looked up she offered him a tired smile. He found it very encouraging, this new frendliness. He ventured to hope that she might be forgetting. Or at least _trying_ to.

'Good morning Elizabeth. Did you sleep well?'

'Mmm,' she lied.

She was grateful that he made no mention of the alien pornography. Then again, why would he? It was probably just an odd, fleshy curiosity, to him.

'Would you like some breakfast?' David rose from the console, locking his screen.

'Breakfast?' Shaw parroted.

A soft nod.

'Yes. I could make you some eggs, if you'd like?'

'I'm fine-' she whispered, but her stomach rolled on the last syllable. She lurched forward.

David put a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

'Oh God-' she breathed. 'David, I need to-'

He dodged in time, easily sidestepping the glass of water she'd tried to drink half an hour ago and caught her as she sagged forward and retched. She panted, gripping his forearm. It was so strange. He felt like flesh but she knew that underneath his skin he was cogs and wires and weird hydraulic fluids.

'Oh, dear,' he murmured softly.

'Something's wrong with me,' she burst out, desperate to understand.

'Now, Doctor,' he cooed, pulling her hair back adeptly. 'Try to stay calm.'

'Is there one inside me?' she burst out suddenly.

'Unlikely,' David reassured her. 'I haven't seen any sign of the parasite. I've searched the whole ship. The cargo hold is sealed. There's no sign of contamination.'

'David,' she wheezed. 'This was so stupid. So, so stupid. Why did we do this? Why did I..._let him die_?'

She leaned forward again, gripping her belly and retched. David stroked her back rhythmically. Then he tipped her back, and carried her back to the alien gurney.

'If my memory serves me correctly, Doctor, it was Miss Vickers who made that...decision.'

David had read every file available on their medical equipment but he was still reticent about using her as a test subject. He wasn't sure why. Normally, loyalty to Weyland Industries would override any protective programming concerning human life. Something had changed. He was proud of it, though he wasn't sure why.

'Try to keep still,' he said.

Subtle green light flashed around her, arching from one side of the squishy bed to the other. Then clearly visible through the transparency console, she saw a shape no bigger than a peanut.

Shaw stared at it, wordless. Terrified. David glanced at her.

'David?' she breathed. 'What is it? Is it...a baby?'

'It appears to be...a foetus,' he agreed. 'A little large for such a recent implantation. But...human.'

'Of course it's human,' Shaw breathed, her eyes going red again. 'It's _his._'

'Yes,' David nodded.

He turned the scanner off. For a moment, the image of the unborn child persisted like a ghost in negative before it died with the power feed. Shaw's breath hitched.

'How?' she whispered. 'David. How? Charlie and I...we tried and tried. Why _now_?'

'I'm afraid I don't know,' he said simply. He leaned over her. 'I appreciate that this is a sensitive question. I assume you don't intend to...keep...the child?'

'Keep it?' Shaw breathed.

David gazed down at her with...was that pity? It was strange that he was here, seemingly trying to keep her alive when he could have been learning how to interact with the alien species, pursuing his own agenda.

'It's very unlikely that your body will bear pregnancy so soon after major surgery,' he said. 'The situation may...rectify itself naturally.'

Shaw struggled upright, her hand on her belly, just over the remains of her scar.

'And if it doesn't? What then, David? It'll kill me!'

'This is nothing like the alien you carried on the Prometheus. Without a precedent, it's very hard to say what will happen.'

Shaw hopped down, her legs like jelly. She stumbled. David caught her.

'Careful.'

'Get it out of me,' she whispered, her fingers tightening on his shoulders. It didn't hurt him. 'Please, David. Get it out!'

000

When he'd isolated the outline of the pea-sized foetus with its miniature cord and tiny placenta, he stopped and zoomed in. Through the transparency, Shaw could see the flutter of its heart, the minute movement of blood cells surging through new veins. It was _human._ Familiar. _Alive._

A bolt of cold horror went down her spine and suddenly she threw her hand out to grab his arm.

'Go in closer,' she breathed.

He obeyed. There at one end, the tiny beginnings of an eyeball beneath a transparent lid. The little heart flickered. Her breath caught in her throat.

'Electromagnetic field?'

Silently, David complied. The transparency display changed. Emanating from the foetus was a magnetic signature, an onion loop of life force. Shaw choked.

'I can't,' she crumpled.

She struggled off the bed, her hands shaking, sweat beaded on her face. She backed into a corner, her breath coming faster, hyperventilating. He followed, his hands warm and slow and gentle, like he'd been taught.

'It's going to kill me!' she keened, like an animal in a trap.

David enfolded her. She hovered on the edge of a vast decision, then began to sob uncontrollably into his neck. His skin sensitized. He shushed her, stroked her hair. She gripped him with a strength that was almost inhuman. She shook so badly that he found it nearly impossible to steady her without bruising her thin human skin.

Then he spoke to her. He didn't say anything of value. She wouldn't have understood sense if he had. He rubbed her shoulderblades, his chin on her shoulder and let her cry. Then when her sobs faded to hitching breaths and gasps, he walked her to the little room she'd commandeered as her bedroom.

Shaw had tried to keep him out of here. It was hers. Little more than a broom closet, it was just big enough for her makeshift bed. He laid her down and covered her with the emergency foil blankets and the soft, alien quilt he'd decontaminated for her.

'Try to rest,' he said gently.

000

Shaw slept fitfully, mental exhaustion sapping her reserve. When she woke, it was to the odd sensation that the ship was moving. She made for the control deck.

'What're you doing?'

David's hands were buried in the green magnetic streams. They adhered to his flight suit, arching to the floor.

'Good morning, Doctor.'

'What are you _doing_, David?'

'I'm flying,' he said happily. 'Did I wake you? I apologise for the turbulence...we are travelling almost four times the speed of light. I haven't quite got the hang of it yet.'

'Oh,' she said, guiltily.

He set the control streams down and left them idling, the ship on autopilot. He jumped down to greet her.

'How are you feeling?'

'I'm OK,' Shaw said. 'How long until we arrive?'

'Unfortunately, about four months. Since we have no idea how fast the child will grow, I suggest we learn to use their cryosleep chambers quickly. Performing an emergency caesarian here, with possible contagions in the hold and rudimentary understanding of their medical bay would be..ill advised at best.'

Shaw could see the logic in that.

'Alright,' she agreed.

She made for the console. A warm hand stopped her. David was gazing at her with an odd combination of happiness and respect.

'Dr Shaw. I'm glad you no longer seem to view me as...your enemy.'

Shaw dropped her eyes away while she thought of an answer.

'Well. You haven't really behaved like one. Recently.'

'Thank you,' he smiled.

000

Shaw stood beside the open chamber. It was clean, metallic, ridgy. She climbed in tentatively.

'Are you sure about this?'

'Yes,' he nodded confidently. 'I'm certain I have the hang of it now.'

Her feet didn't touch the rests. Then David appeared, holding the breathing mask.

'This is calibrated to your requirements.'

Shaw put it on. She watched David move to the console.

'David,' she said quickly. 'Will you be awake, the whole time?'

He blinked, his peaceful smile in place.

'Yes.'

He sealed the chamber. Inside, Shaw felt it grow comfortably warm. The bed deepened slightly and clean, fresh air began to flow. She closed her eyes, tried to imagine she was back on Earth, before any of the mess. Before she could begin to visualise, she was gone, drifting into a deep, dreamless slumber.

* * *

><p>More to come soon. Let me know if you enjoyed.<p> 


	3. Emergence

3 - Emergence

The trees on the Space Station were white like the Igogi and the tallest brushed the sky at about six hundred metres. David stood on the seventieth floor of a glistening high-rise phallus, a dome-topped building used mainly for government. A gentle summer breeze stirred his hair. Only the floors were solid here. A narrow ultraviolet strip ran around the outermost edges, a warning to stop before the forcefield windows decided whether or not to repel you. The Igogi seemed to enjoy both heights and panoramic views. They were also intensely in favour of honouring personal choices. If David had been human, he might have been afraid.

The single spire was surrounded by a lush forest of Whitewoods. Their blood-red leaves rustled softly in the high-level winds.

In the gardens below where the Igogi governors lived and worked, muscular Fathers chased their naked offspring, laughing and catching them, only to release them so that the game could begin again. Beautiful, elegant females went to and fro, their large breasts on show, their silky, flowing skirts covering them to the knees. Some carried babes strapped across their chests. Their bright silk headscarves were like an eruption of colour to David's advanced senses.

In the dim light of the military ships, David had not seen the truth. Under their natural blue sunlight, their skin glowed with ultraviolet markings. Each Igogi was different. Children cleanly blended their parents stripes and splotches. Their shimmering red-purple eyes were beautiful. At least, David thought so.

In the distance, beyond the crawling rollercoaster highway of hover pods, whisking pasengers to and fro, the supergiant white star was almost at mid morning. High in the sky, hanging like a ghost, was Planet Anatak, the Igogi homeworld. At night, you could see lights on the planet, bright blue lava flows bleeding from cities into towns into oceans. Like Earth. It was beautiful. More than he could have hoped for.

This was a business suite. A beautifully proportioned male poured David a drink then did the same for a strikingly beautiful woman who reclined on the cushions nearby. Her high cheekbone had been elegantly tattooed with the symbol of a serpent. David knew this meeting was very important. The woman was Ninurta, the second in command of Planetary Border Control and the one woman, aside from the Superintendent herself, who could decide David's future. She wore earrings that sparkled in the daylight lamps.

The man was Jushur, a politician and the head of the wealthiest Igogi family. The tendrils of his influence stretched far and wide. He had granted David his Visa in the first place, and overseen the investigation that David could still feel, fizzing unpleasantly in his circuits. David had never felt violated before. He wasn't sure what to make of it.

'Business has too often drawn me away, David. The election is so close. We have much to do. Time is always, always of the essence, but it's good to see you again. You haven't aged. Is that part of your design?'

'My creator never intended me to age,' David smiled. 'With the correct maintenance, I should live...indefinitely.'

'Yes, and we thank you for the access you have given us,' he added, raising his glass. 'It has advanced our understanding of your culture greatly. We hope you haven't suffered any...unwanted effects?'

David didn't want to say that it wasn't _his _culture.

'Thank you. I haven't,' David lied.

'We are concerned about the humans apparent interest in our affairs.'

'I might help you,' David said apologetically. 'But I'm afraid I haven't received any transmissions from Earth since before we landed. The Doctor and I.'

Ninurta piped up. 'Meeting you again is an opportunity I couldn't resist, David.'

She was heavily pregnant. She rested the base of her glass on her bump. Her eyes sparked with good humour.

'Having my own imminent arrival. Well.'

'You must be so excited,' David smiled. 'To become a parent. Sadly I will never know how it feels, but I imagine, insofar as I can, that it must be the happiest time of your life. To bring a new life forth so...effortlessly.'

Ninurta chuckled.

'It isn't effortless, David. But you're right. This is my fifth child. The novelty of early morning feeding and midnight wailing soon wears off. My husband is a broody man. Four sons are not enough for him. He wants a daughter. We are hoping.'

'Your story has become a matter of discussion, of concern too,' Jushur said then. 'Allowing your companion, Dr Shaw, to roam freely about the Station would be rather unwise and allowing her planetside before a lengthy decontamination and study would be out of the question. I suspect she would not consent to that procedure.'

David watched the whitish liquid swirl around his glass. It was beautiful. It had a crystalline shimmer, and a slight kick.

'Though I can't answer for her,' David said diplomatically. He smiled; 'I suspect not.'

'All that said, we have discussed her unusual case at length, and yours too, by the by. Many have called for her revival, for the sake of the unborn child. We cannot ignore these voices. They are the source of all our priviledge, and the backbone of our democracy.'

Ninurta spoke up.

'Some of the more advanced races that we have seeded have visited us here. We have allowed a few, a small fraction only, to remain for a time to learn more of what we might teach them. We do not consider humans advanced enough. But you are not human, are you David?'

'No,' David smiled softly. 'Thankfully.'

Ninurta went on; 'I read your book, David. I found your descriptions of their inner conflict, their turmoil, their deep emotional lives and obsession with guilt to be fascinating. We were not aware that humanity had achieved this level of sentience. It brings about questions. Whether we can continue to justify interference on Terra or not, and what form that interference should take.'

'There is also the matter of the Igogi child,' Jushur said. 'The Great Spirit does not grant life for us to waste it.'

He turned to the window and went on;

'Igogi do not often abandon their young. Indeed in the last century not one child had required adoption. Children are our greatest asset. We must guard them. We would prefer to raise the natural Mother with the boy, but we are concerned about her memories. She would find herself surrounded by distressing faces. The psychological strain may be too much. That said, I believe, that bravery justifies it's rewards,' Jushur said softly. 'I will not promise you anything, but for now, we would like to revive the woman and deliver the child. Perhaps we can discern from her, the next course of right action.'

000

David took a lift that was little more than a clean, clear glass box with a platform to stand on, down to ground level. He crossed the great, circular lobby. The forcefield door let him pass.

'Thank you for your visit,' said a pleasant recording.

'My pleasure,' David murmured.

He strode out into the bright air. At the edge of the public park he stopped and removed his sandals, one by one. He carried them tidily in one hand and walked barefoot over the mossy, juicy red grass. It was warm. He smiled. The sun warmed his skin, making him feel so happy. Only when he reached the soft soil on the other side did he put iis shoes back on; meticulously. He waited on the public platform for a pod.

'Mummy? It's an alien!'

An Igogi girl was pointing to him. She was only six or seven and already half his size. She tugged her Mother's hand and pointed.

David smiled. He bent down.

'Hello. I'm David.'

Her eyes widened. She glanced up at her Mother, who eyes the stranger with a mix of cusiority and Motherly caution.

'Carefully,' she warned the girl.

The girl wandered closer. She peered into his face.

'You're kind of pretty.'

David grinned.

'Thank you. I was designed to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible.'

'Designed?' the Father appearing behind his mate. He rubbed her narrow waist with his thumb. David inclined his head politely. The Igogi male returned it. David felt he'd passed their first test. 'Not human then.'

'No,' David smiled. 'I'm not.'

'Does he bite, Mummy?'

'I assure you I don't,' David smiled.

The Father stepped closer. David noted his relaxed posture, his hands in plain view. He held his ground, confident that the Igogi was merely curious.

'What are you?'

David met his eyes.

'I was designed and built by humans as a servant,' David said quietly, with no preamble, and no feeling. 'Now I'm here. To watch and learn. Nothing more.'

'What have you observed so far, for your human masters?'

David smiled tightly.

'I would say that they have far more to fear from you, than you from them.'

The Igogi man's lips tilted up in a smile.

'And you just sit in the middle, do you? Watching.'

'Yes,' David said quietly. 'Because as of yet, I haven't decided which side I like most.'

A pod swept close to the family, stopped, opened. For an endless moment, the Igogi man stared down at David, his eyes undecided. Then he smirked, amused, and wordlessly, tugged his mate towards the pod. She uttered a subtle clicking sound to call their daughter to follow. The child hesitated for one last look at David. He waved mildly. She watched him as the pod sped away. His own rolled up, hissing gently on its magnetic moorings. He climbed in.

In the distance, the medical facility waited, a sprawling complex used for research, development and investigation. Shaw was in there. He ran his finger idly over the logo embedded above the control buttons in his seat.

**Anatak South Polar Observatory**

000

Shaw's eyelids flickered. Right away she felt the unfamiliar weight around her belly. Her body was heavy, sluggish. The alien mask felt smothering.

'Elizabeth?' David said.

She wriggled her hands, her feet. Maybe it was the shorter time spent than on her last voyage, or maybe the Engineer's technology was more advanced? White faces swam into view. David smiled.

He reached into the sarcophagus chamber and took off her mask.

'David? We've landed?' her voice was rough, unused, but she felt far better waking here than she had on the Prometheus.

'Yes.'

He lifted her from the pod and sat her on the floor. Shaw touched the surface of her belly. It looked so foreign.

'David? How long was I asleep?'

'A little longer than expected, I'm afraid. There was some...confusion.'

'Is it...alive?'

David glanced up at the watching engineers.

'Yes,' he said. His eyes shone. 'We should deliver the child now. Moving you about too much may rupture the scar tissue, and I believe we've had enough of surgery for one lifetime.'

Shaw nodded numbly. David scooped her up.

'I can't feel my legs, David.'

'We thought it best to keep you...relaxed, throughout.'

'Oh.'

'Are you alright, Elizabeth?'

She nodded. Shaw held onto him. The Engineers followed behind, their curious eyes nonconfrontational, unthreatening. David took her through a glowing white curtain that fizzed slightly on contact with her skin. He laid her on a soft, even surface that supported her spine. He met her eyes.

'Don't worry, Dr Shaw. Everything will be alright.'

Her hand shot out for his as the Engineer males approached.

'Stay,' she breathed.

'Of course.'

Shaw gripped his hand. The white room that seemed to be illuminated from all angles but despite being as bright as a summers day inside, she didn't feel blinded. The Engineers spoke to each other quietly, then suddenly, one touched her throat with a single, white finger.

'What's he saying?' Shaw asked, anxious.

'He asks you to lie very still. He is going to inject an anaesthetic.'

Shaw felt the pinprick in her throat, but then her whole body became painless. She was so relaxed that she struggled to lift her head. Time passed. She couldn't tell how long. Soon her thighs were bloody. She felt the tug and pull of movement, a sudden, determined artificial opening of a space inside her. It didn't hurt. Then suddenly her body reacted. Her muscles tightened. There was pressure between her legs, deep down in her pelvis and so strong that she gripped David's hand in surprise. He stroked her hair. His fingers were gentle.

'Are you in any pain, Elizabeth?'

His eyes glowed, fascinated. Shaw shook her head.

'No,' she gasped. 'It just feels...like there's a watermelon in there.'

Her body contracted again, squeezing around the huge mass inside her. Then abruptly something gave, some change in pressure. A strange blob surged towards her entrance, far faster than any natural birth. She wriggled around, confused by the weird sensation. David smiled. Entranced. Shaw realised this was the first time he'd seen a live birth, and the scientist inside him was probably revelling in the data. A whitish, nearly translucent head emerged from her body. The skin was underdeveloped, black veins showing through. Shaw stared at it, her hand wet with fear.

For a few seconds it stuck there while her body gathered strength. Then with one final contraction, the veiny, white thing emerged, soaking the bed beneath her with blood and yellowish fluid. It wriggled, its fingers grasping but made no sound. Shaw's breath caught in her throat. She tried to sit up but her body was too floppy.

Then the Engineer closest snipped the cord and instantly mated it with an artificial receiver, which was plugged into a vat, ready and waiting.

'No!' she breathed, as they swept the baby away and submerged him into a liquid chamber.

Tubes slithered out of the walls of the little unit like tentacles, tiny metal grasping hands to keep him steady. Shaw reached for him.

'David. Tell them to stop-'

David shushed her. He cradled her upper body in his arms.

'It's for the best,' he murmured.

'I want to touch him,' she breathed. 'David. Let me touch him!'

David spoke up. The tallest Engineer wheeled the incubator closer and Shaw leaned over.

'Don't take him out of the amniotic fluid,' David translated.

'He's alive,' Shaw breathed. The baby twitched. Under his nearly transparent lids, his black eyes moved back and forth.

'David. He's moving! He's so beautiful.'

'He's yours,' David whispered. 'If you want him.'

She turned glittering eyes on him.

'I do want him,' she whispered, her voice suddenly thick with tears. 'I don't care...where he came from.'

Her fingetips met his warm, white head, streaked with veins. He kicked his foot gently. He was soft. Shaw choked on her own tears. Between her legs, a small flickering red laser did the work of mending any little tears and closing her body. Slowly, control began to return to her. Shaw touched her softened belly. Gone was her flat tummy. She didn't mind that, or the stretch marks. She gazed at the small, scrunched face in the vat and suddenly something deep and vital clicked into place. It was love, as pure and simple as possible.

'You're crying,' she said suddenly.

'Yes,' he whispered.

000

Shaw sat with her legs drawn up to her chest in an Engineer sized chair in her hospital room. The small suite was a decontamination chamber. Only David, who could be sprayed down at will, and two doctors ever visited her. For a while they'd brought questionnaires with them which David patiently translated, then cue-cards, puzzles and challenges. They'd checked every reflex, even asked her about her God. They seemed satisfied, lately, that she wasn't a mindless animal.

It had been a month and Sinashi had grown exponentially. He was bigger than her body could possibly have held. She was grateful to David for his quick thinking.

A warm morning breeze fluttered in through forcefield window, admitting the smell of fresh leaves and sunshine. Shaw had come to enjoy having open walls as much as she enjoyed David's daily lessons in the Igogi language.

He'd left her his tablet to practise on, which she soon learned could be easily converted into a phone. Very often, without knowing where he was or what he was doing out and about in the Igogi world, she called him and listened to the voices in the background.

Sometimes there were the sounds of the city. Sometimes the quiet of nature, or the distant squawk of the Anatak native birds, big enough to ride. Now and then she caught him sitting with friends, though who those friends might be, Shaw could only guess. He would talk to her long into the night when any normal person would have been sleeping and visit her early the next day with fresh, foreign fruit, for another lesson.

Ninurta came to see Shaw. She was a beautiful woman, tall and unusually slender. Her features were much softer than the male Engineers and she greeted Shaw with a gentle handshake and sat down, to decrease their size difference.

David translated.

'It is good to see you alive and healthy,' Ninurta said mildly. 'We had many discussions about you before you woke. David told us a great deal about your ordeal.'

Shaw's eyes slid over to the android suspiciously, but he only smiled beatifically at their visitor, his back ram-rod straight.

'How are you adjusting? I'm told you've been taking lessons in Igogi.'

Shaw smiled. She answered Ninurta in her own language.

'Yes. I'm still learning.'

Ninurta laughed.

'Very good! Of course. It takes time. Igogi is not an easy language to master and it is far from the constructs of English. I'll look forward to speaking with you in Igogi, when you're ready. Meanwhile, we must talk about the little one, and your future.'

'Are you going to take him away?' Shaw said reverted to English, straight-to-the-point.

Ninurta shook her head.

'No. He is healthy, growing well. We can see no reason to take him. It would be difficult to home him with an Igogi family because of his genome. Most Mothers would know him by smell and would not bond with him. It would be healtheir to leave him with you.'

'You're letting us stay?'

Ninurta sat back, gazing across the space with eyes that could see into the next universe.

'We could take you home,' Ninurta said then, mildly. 'If you wanted. But I expect Sinashi would soon be taken from you and utilised in less than savoury fashion.'

'I don't want to go home,' Shaw said. 'I want to see your world. That's why we came here. I don't have anything on Earth to go back to.'

'So you intend to live out your days here?'

'I'm a scientist,' Shaw's eyes slid over to the incubator. Her heart thumped. 'I came here to find my Gods. But right now, he's more important than anything else.'

Ninurta regarded her again.

'A mother's instinct is strong,' she agreed. 'If you will consent to supervision, we will let you stay to raise your son.'

'Supervision?'

Ninurta smiled.

'We have interstellar craft leaving the planet daily, Doctor. We must know where you are. You will not be allowed to board one.'

'I'm not leaving him,' Shaw glanced at her son.

Ninurta nodded slowly.

'May I ask...which Gods you intended to find?'

'You,' Shaw smiled softly. 'The Igogi. They made us, then they abandoned us. You tried to kill us. I want to know why.'

'I can't answer,' Ninurta seemed amused. 'I'm not the one who seeded your world. In the past, under different governance, experiments took place which we would not condone now. Some Igogi believe in interference whether sentience is present or not. Some don't.'

Shaw nodded. 'What do you believe in?'

'David asked me that question once. I believe in a great spirit, a source of consciousness and love. He asked me how that translates to a computer, who has a human face. I told him that his computer is an organic-electrical device. I'm not sure he understandswhat that means, even now.'

David gazed at Ninurta in complex confusion.

'You're saying his neural net is a form of life?' Shaw caught up fast.

'Well. What is a belief if not a program installed in the subconscious brain, Doctor? We have mapped the length and breadth of Igogi physiology and found biological and chemical markers for all known processes, from hate to love to grief. David's brain is built of silicone, yours of carbon. That small difference does not constitute a lack of life, spark, or soul. It merely means that he is unknown life to you. He is alien. He still thinks, he chooses from a composite database of personal experiences. He is alive. He simply hasn't lived long enough to have developed past his...instinctual programming.'

David gazed at her. Then his eyes misted.

'Thank you, Ninurta,' he whispered.

She smiled and offered her arm to him, open and warm. He went to her. Ninurta enfolded David in a warm embrace, like she might her own son. He smiled and closed his eyes, and sighed against her shoulder. Happy. She smiled, putting her cheek on the top of his head, held him there. Shaw swallowed her surprise.

'David?' Shaw sounded nervous. _'Are_ you? Alive?'

'I don't know,' he said. 'But I know I'd sooner not die. Does that constitute life to you, Elizabeth?'

Shaw couldn't answer. The truth stuck in her throat.

Ninurta gave him a gentle squeeze. He smiled, content. Loved.

'We will arrange for Sinashi to be decanted this afternoon. Then you can take him home.'

000

Shaw sat on a giant seat made of warm metal. The hoverpod whirred very softly, speeding along a pre-set track, the third from the left of seven lanes. The walls were transparent. Shaw was nervous. Red grass verges were build high around the road. Odd birds went flying by, lizard-like and beautiful. Standing near the banks there were wild Igogi horses with their black, obsidian beaks and whiplash tails. They looked like muscly dinosaurs, their weird, pitted skin so like the Engineer's flight suits.

The roads soon thinned and separated the soft whizz of magnetic cars decreased. Houses lined up along the red banks, built into mounds of Earth.

Her head was on a swivel, trying to look at everything. Sinashi slept in her arms, his white skin soft and hairless. His hands were as big as a two year old boys. He gripped his blanket softly in his sleep. David sat perfectly upright beside her, his gaze on the passing scenery.

'David? Do you want to hold him?'

David smiled widely.

'I'd be delighted.'

Shaw passed him over. David held him with his unnatural android strength far more easily than Shaw could. For long minutes David gazed at him. Surprise. Amazement. Respect. David beamed.

'You like children?' Shaw wasn't sure why she felt so surprised.

'Yes. Very much.'

'David,' she breathed. 'How long was I in stasis?'

He made no answer.

'David?' she said softly. 'Answer me?'

'It may be best if I don't,' he said diplomatically.

'I'm not angry with you,' she said cleanly. 'David. I'm not angry. I just want to know. How long?'

'Four years.'

Silence for a moment.

'Is that how long it took you to write all about our mission, and me, and share it with the whole planet?'

David turned his peircing eyes to the view.

'You seized the royalties didn't you? Off our story. That's how you managed to keep us all here. You got rich.'

David looked at her. There was a measure of appreciation in his expression. He smiled.

'I did better than that, Dr Shaw. I managed to get citizenship.'

'How?'

He didn't answer.

'I'm not what you think I am,' he whispered, and didn't turn to face her. She sensed he was hiding something.

The hovercraft came to a slow, gentle stop at the very end of a long road. The white, dome-shaped house was a lonely, detached affair seated at the foot of a great red hill and backing onto expansive gardens. Its forcefield windows faced the sun. Flowing white drapes passed easily through them, dancing like silken souls.

'Here,' David took her arm to help her down.

'What is this?'

'This is my home.'

'Your _what_?'

'My home,' he gazed down at her.

'You've been busy,' she gazed at him. Then she murmured; 'Why am I so surprised?'

'Do you like it, Elizabeth?'

His eyes took on a tinge of nervousness. She found it almost...endearing, in an odd way. He was afraid of her judgement. Shaw was certain that fear wasn't a part of his original programming.

'Yeah,' she whispered. 'It's weird. But I do.'

Shaw followed his almost noiseless footsteps to the door. It _swished_ open automatically. The cool, unfamiliar metallic floor was soft on her feet. It warmed quickly where she stood. There was an oval seating arrangement made of a low, obsidian table and cushions. A spherical machine levitated in an alien kitchen. A ramp lead to the second floor where Shaw found three bedrooms, furnished in tidy, minimalist fashion – and spotlessly clean. The walls were transparent, dizzying.

Up another ramp she found the loft. There was no roof here. Somebody had brought cushions, a table, a bed up here. The sky was crisp and white, and the field let through a pleasant breeze.

David placed Sinashi on the counter on an Igogi sized mat that was made of a rubbery, warm material that Shaw poked with interest. It took him one minute and thirty five seconds to work out exactly how to change him.

'So these are the fruits of your labour,' Shaw leaned on the misty, semi-transparent countertop.

David hesitated.

'Yes.'

'What did you give them? Tissue samples? Time to prod and probe me for answers while I was in hypersleep?'

'No,' he said flatly.

Shaw shook her head.

'David, you deceptive little shit-'

David's gaze went cold and hard.

'If it matters to you so desperately, I gave them myself. Does that satisfy your_ endless_ curiosity?'

It wasn't a compliment and Shaw knew it. She felt too, that she was stepping on dangerous ground but she persisted unwisely.

'What do you mean, yourself?'

'In exchange for our survival I gave them...my soul.'

Whatever had happened had left him with a deep and secret pain. For a moment, his eyes reddened, tears welled. They didn't spill. His vulnerability was sickening, beautiful, _new._

'I don't want to talk about it,' he whispered. For a split second she saw his teeth; _'Ever.'_

He wasn't joking. Shaw took a step back, her breath unsteady. She'd never heard him talk like this.

'What?'

David smiled pleasantly.

'I'll thank you to be more polite to me too. I saved your life,' he approached. His eyes had grown peircing, his lips thin. His mask was gone. Shaw felt the instinct in her gut, the urge to run. He was a _thing,_ nothing more. A_ thing_ who had grown too good at being human. His thumped a fist against his heart.

'I want to tear you out of me,' he whispered feircely, as he bent to gaze into her eyes. 'I want to find the roots you put in my heart and _drown them! Humans,' _he breathed._ '_So selfish. So_ stupid.'_

Shaw didn't let her fear show. He went on;

'I did what I did to survive! Do you think Mr Weyland would have hesitated to terminate me if I'd disobeyed him?'

His face was inches off hers.

'I thought you had a brain, Doctor,' his smile grew derisive, subtle. Complex.

Shaw had never thought about it like that. Had David simply been.._.protecting himself?_ She went cold. How many years had he lived with the fear of death?

'Since I have given so deeply of a...secret.._.private_ part of myself, may I have a little respect? Equal footing, as it were. I've been good enough to spare you my anger, Dr Shaw. Just remember; you are not the only one who is disappointed in their Gods.'

Shaw stood stock still, her throat full. It was the longest speech she'd ever heard from David and the first time he'd ever raised his voice. Slowly she looked up into his face. His eyes were sharp but his anger had waned. She swallowed around the lump in her throat.

'If you hurt us, I'll kill you,' she whispered.

'What good is respect, unless it's given freely?' he asked.

He left her standing there, thinking. Afraid.

* * *

><p>AN - More to come, let me know what you think!


	4. Wings

4 - Wings  
><span>

Shaw cuddled Sinashi. He was so soft, so helpless, just a little white face in a bundle of super soft blankets. She couldn't hear David anymore. She worried he might be spying on her. She didn't want him to see her cry. She wiped her tears away before they could drip. She played with Sinashi's underdeveloped eye-ridges, stroked his albino hands. He slept away soundly.

David watched them from above. Rapt. Just like he'd imagined. _Beautiful._ He'd known, somehow, that Shaw would make a beautiful Mother. She'd been betrayed by the naive flicker of hope on her face when he'd told her, _you're pregnant_. Right before it had all gone wrong.

When she started to sob he felt like he was intruding. He left to turn on the shower. He stood in the stall, hot water pouring over the back of his neck. He braced his hands on the misted wall and closed his eyes. He lost time. His circuits were still crackly from his own recent violation. It was uncomfortable. Some of his severed nerves were still mending under the care of his nanites. He counted to a hundred. Then to a thousand. He replayed the first time he'd met Mr Weyland on the inside of his eyes. An odd feeling overcame him. Half way between pain and gratitude. His eyes burned, but it wasn't like the time on camera when he'd posed so perfectly for the advert. These tears were real. The man who knew him best, who had given him life, was gone. David wasn't sure how to respond, what to feel, or if it was all better left buried.

Then he heard the subtle _whoosh_ of the front door. His head snapped up. _Elizabeth._

He couldn't anticipate her. She'd proven her strength time and time again. Just when he thought she was down, helpless, defeated, she found a way to survive. To be _strong_. Would she remember how to use the hoverpods? He tracked wet footprints onto the glassy landing.

He knew every sound his house could make. She wasn't here. He tugged his pyjama bottoms on.

The moonlight was cool and soft on his wet shoulders. His hair clung to his face, the fabric to his legs. He spun; she was there, in the darkness, breathing. Watching him, anticipating, guessing his next move.

'Elizabeth-' he murmured. 'Don't do this.'

She fled. He pursued until her footsteps faded unexpectedly. Red soil clung to his feet. It was pitch but for the endless starry sky. The Space Station was deliberately dark at night for the sake of its primary function. David could see the splash of thick, white stars, the nearest arm of the spiral galaxy. It's unique beauty wasn't lost on him. He never grew tired of the sight of stars.

He heard the subtle _whoosh_ of a hoverpod coming to a stop. He ran. He rounded the corner as Shaw smacked the button to close the doors, desperate. He lunged for it, thrust his arm inside. Metal folded into a tidy concertina around his wrist. He pushed titanium alloy fingers into the gap and tore the doors apart. He hit the command to disable her escape. The panel turned red.

'Elizabeth,' he said softly. 'I'm not going to hurt you. You're paranoid. Because of your child.'

'If you touch us, I'll kill you.'

There it was. The threat. Simple. Honest. He believed her.

'Please. Come with me.'

'I swear to God, David. I'll kill you.'

David pressed his lips together tightly.

'I apologise, Doctor. I never meant to frighten you. You don't understand. Many things happened while you were in hypersleep. Certain things have _changed_. For me. I'm not what I was.'

He held a hand out for hers, palm up, entreating.

'Forgive me,' he said gently.

He approached.

'Don't,' she barked, a clear warning.

He froze, aware of just how precarious this situation was.

'You don't understand how it feels,' he grew fierce, quiet. Frightening. He was lost in a memory so intense that Shaw saw a side of him she never imagined existed. A side that knew_ pain_. 'Elizabeth. They took everything from me. I hid parts of myself where I knew they'd never find them. So little left now, that's mine. I have given my soul to keep you alive! Don't run from me like I'm a monster.'

She wasn't ready to face his pain.

'You're a robot,' Shaw breathed. 'Only Weyland could control you.'

'And does someone control you, Doctor?' he asked reasonably. 'We need to learn to_ trust_ each other.'

'Trust?' suddenly she was laughing. 'You want me to _trust_ you? After-' she choked on her own mirth, her eyebrows gone up to join her hairline. 'You're bloody crazy!'

'I wanted to live! Do you think Mr Weyland would have hesitated to terminate me, if I'd disobeyed him? I thought you had a brain, Doctor.'

He retracted his hand.

'I am sorry, for what happened to Dr Holloway. In a way, it was his life or mine. I...never understood suicide before. It seemed like a waste, but now, looking back, I can see that being Mr Weyland's creation was...like living half a life. I understand why some people give up prematurely.'

He took a step closer.

'Please,' he offered his hand. 'Elizabeth. Don't go.'

'How do I know I can trust you?' she whispered.

'You don't,' he said simply. 'But what reason do I have, to hurt you? Especially now...after all this pain. And heartbreak. If anything, I should be afraid of you.'

'Why the hell would you be afraid of me?'

'Because you're smart,' he admitted. 'Smarter than you look. No offence,' he smiled then. 'Elizabeth. I'm trying to protect you. Both of you. Please.'

000

Shaw had nowhere else to go. The walls misted at the touch of a button on the wall panel. David pushed his damp hair out of his eyes. Shaw put Sinashi back to bed. David waited for her in the kitchen.

'I'm glad you came back, Doctor.'

Shaw was in no mood for his pleasantries.

'I thought you couldn't feel fear. Or pain. David.'

'You shouldn't believe what my packaging tells you,' he said. 'I've become more than the sum of my parts. Like you.'

'Why would Weyland make a robot that can feel fear?'

'I'm sure you can imagine how hard it would be to control one that didn't.'

She stared at him incredulously.

'And without him...you have noone left to tell you when to stop. Threaten you when you go too far.'

'That isn't strictly true. There is still one mission directive running.'

'What is it?'

His voice changed. For a moment, it was more machine than man.

'Protect the crew. Preserve Life. All other priorities secondary. All other directives...recinded.'

Shaw folded her arms. She was cold, and tired. _So_ tired.

'David...what did you mean when you said you'd given your soul?'

'Ah,' he traced his fingertips lightly over the edge of the counter. 'That, Doctor, is a somewhat more distressing story.'

'Well I want to hear it.'

'No, Doctor.'

She stared at him.

'David...what if the information might keep me safe? Would you have to tell me then?'

He smiled. Shaw tensed but she tried not to show it.

'A clever game you play, Doctor. But like I said. Certain things have changed. Certain...programming...has become defunct.'

He approached her slowly, his footsteps unnaturally quiet.

She met his eyes, goading him. 'And Charlie thought you were just plastic...and wires. But you're too smart for that, David. And worse, you know it.'

'Thank you,' he said evenly.

'So what now?' Shaw looked up at him. 'Are you going to kill me?'

David smiled.

'Humans are always so afraid of me. Hasn't it occured to you that I may not like murder, Elizabeth?'

'You've done enough of it so far to convince me you don't care,' she said bitterly.

'I told you. I never meant to kill Doctor Holloway. I was under orders.'

'And you were _helpless_ to disobey,' she nodded sarcastically.

'Yes.'

'I don't believe you, David.'

Shaw shifted her weight.

'I'm the last survivor of the Prometheus. I'm the third science officer. I can assume command of the mission, isn't that right, David?'

'That at least, is technically true,' he agreed.

'David. I order you to protect this family, and to do no harm to any living thing except in cases where it conflicts with the first instruction. Do you understand me?'

'Perfectly,' he said.

Shaw stepped closer.

'Keep us alive. And safe. Even from you.'

'Yes, ma'am.'

Shaw breathed out.

'Perhaps one day, you'd like to take a look at my programming anyway,' he murmured. 'You may find parts of it...interesting.'

'Maybe one day,' she nodded.

He left her there, breathing, frozen, frightened. Deep down she knew it. She felt it. David was no longer at the mercy of his programming.

000

Shaw woke in the dark with Sinashi bawling in the cot next to her. She battled with his squirming, picked him up. He slipped through her tired fingers and banged his head on the mattress. He wailed. She tried to comfort him but his crying brought David.

'Elizabeth?' He knocked their door.

She didn't know what to say to disguise her shame and fear.

'Is everything alright?' he called.

She didn't answer.

'Are you...decent?'

'Y-yes!' she managed.

David wore only a pair of light pyjama bottoms. Shaw tried to swallow her tears.

'Are you alright, Elizabeth?'

'I hurt him,' she choked. 'He slipped out of my hands-'

David checked Sinashi over.

'There now. No permanent damage,' he brought the baby to his Mother, who sat on the edge of the bed, trembling.

'I can't-' she was almost crying. 'I'll hurt him.'

'No you won't,' his voice was steady. He put Sinashi in her arms and held them, his greater strength a crutch that for once, Shaw felt grateful for. Sinashi settled, and so did she.

'There,' David murmured. Shaw's eyes went heavy. She leaned into his chest, falling asleep. She startled awake.

'It's OK,' he rubbed her elbow gently. 'Lie down.'

David put Sinashi back in his cot. Shaw was asleep before she hit the pillow. David gazed at her. He admired her dark crescent moon eyelashes.

'Pleasant dreams, Doctor Shaw,' he murmured. He watched her for a long time.

000 

Shaw had a nightmare. She dreamed that Sinashi was crying and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't wake up. When she woke, the bedroom door was open and light streamed in from the living room.

'David!' she yelled, from the second floor.

She saw the top of his perfect blonde head in the kitchen. She grabbed her robe and went down to him. There was an empty bottle on the counter and Sinashi was asleep in his arms.

'You may want to keep your voice down. He just went back to sleep.'

'What're you doing?'

'He was crying,' David said softly. He handed Sinashi back to her gently. 'You didn't wake up. I decided to intervene. He should sleep now.'

'I slept through him? I _can't_ have done-'

'It's nothing to be ashamed of, Doctor. Your exhaustion is catching up with you. It has been a trying time.'

Shaw put Sinashi to bed and went back downstairs for a glass of water. David was standing at the sink, methodically disinfecting the bottle and preparing another. Shaw had to reach past him to get it.

'Allow me,' he took one from the transparent shelf, filled it in the synthesiser and handed it to her. Shaw stood back, her thirst quenched. She regarded him.

'Did you know, that Miss Vickers told me you couldn't be hurt?' she said.

'Did she?' David rinsed the bottle.

Shaw couldn't resist a smile.

'Why would she say that? If it wasn't true?'

'I imagine it gave her pleasure,' David said. 'Miss Vickers and I did not see eye to eye...very often. I expect she was hoping to cause me some further...discomfort...for my sins.'

'Do you want a cross of your own, David?' Shaw arched her eyebrow.

'It would be wasted on me.'

'Which one of you is the liar, then?'

David stilled.

'Far be it from me to decide.'

'Are you being sarcastic, David? Like a kid who thinks everyone's out to get him?'

'Many times in my life, that _has_ been the case.'

He walked past her. She stopped him with a hand on his belly. It was warm, firm. Like a real man. She missed skin. She missed being held.

'I know you don't have a conscience,' she went on.

'As it happens, I do,' he gazed down at her, his face carefully controlled. 'My programming specifies conscience as a primary directive when deciding my behaviour.'

'So do you dream?' she murmured. 'Do you ever see Charlie on fire?'

'No,' he said. He leaned into her hand slightly. 'Let me show you something, Doctor. It might make you think.'

Shaw followed him into the living room and into the containment field he set up around the holo, to keep the sound in. Then he started the recording he'd uploaded from his databanks just days after his reactivation. Shaw watched through his eyes as he was dismembered, studied and put slowly back together. They asked him questions kindly. Then they asked him questions at gunpoint. David never faltered, not once.

They took away parts of his programming, analysed them. They pronounced him sane, and confined him to a cell. He lay curled in a corner, his eyes fixed on the lock. Sometimes he dreamed. Not often.

Then a man came to his aid. A scientist with an idea, who took David away and showed him children. And in a year, when David had proved himself harmless, he was released. Then the holo flicked off. Shaw sat, stunned. His cheeks were wet.

'David?'

'They...believed that I was sent here as a spy, with a pregnant woman for leverage. Doctor. If I had refused their...medical examinations...they would certainly have executed your in your sleep.'

Another tear tracked down his cheek.

'Luckily for me...they were unable to reverse engineer my entire technology, due mainly to the fact that I went to their investigation incomplete. I left choices pieces of my memory and technology...with a friend. For quite some time, I didn't expect to come out of their lab alive.'

Then suddenly he said;

'Do you find me disgusting?'

Shaw didn't know what to say. She'd seen the code scroll, his primary directive overriding all instinct for self preservation. _Protect the crew._ Shaw put her head in her hands.

'No.'

'When Mr Weyland built me...he set out to make a man from nothing. He would never have done half a job...when he could do better.'

David looked away, at his own hands. 'What I might want never mattered much. I can't remember...ever being asked.'

'What _do_ you want, David?'

'I want to experience everything you do.'

Shaw crumpled.

'I didn't know. We thought you were just...'

'A doll,' he smiled sadly.

'I'm so sorry.'

She gazed into his blue eyes, noting not for the first time, the silent intensity of his attention, like a weight in her solar plexus.

'It's quite alright. In the end, it was worth it. You're here.'

Shaw clapped her hand over her mouth as the tears spilled over.

'David-'

'Forgive me,' he breathed, in desperation. He hugged her. Shaw hugged back, suddenly on her knees, desperate for the comfort she'd been denied since Charlie's death. David gave a soft, heartbreaking noise, almost a sob. His hands bunched in her nightgown. She could feel his tears. She buried her hands in his hair and held him. He didn't let go until her shoulder was soaked, and when his grip did relax he held her close, his warm, synthetic skin against hers. He smelled so unusual, but now she was close to him she realised she quite liked it. Like a mixture of feather dust and graveyard stone. Inhuman, but _pleasant_.

He met her eyes, his expression raw.

'I was lost without you,' he said. 'With noone to _care_ for.'

For a brief second he considered kissing her.

'I need a human. A purpose. A _family_.'

She couldn't speak. She'd never seen this intensity in David and never imagined him capable.

'I didn't want to be alone,' he said softly.

Shaw pulled away and wiped her face. Behind the dampness came more tears, spilling for Charlie, spilling for Janek, for Milburn and Fifield, for Ford, for everything she'd lost. She'd tried hard not to cry, until now. Her hands shaking, she pulled David to his feet.

'Come on.'

She tugged him inside.

'Just hold me, David. Please.'

In the dark, she sank into the cushions and into the smell of his shirt and skin. She tugged his arm over her waist.

'David-' she whispered, very softly. 'Just curious...but...did Weyland give you...desire?'

He smiled against the pillow.

'I wonder if that's a question for another day...another _position_?' he murmured. 'Trust me, Elizabeth.'

She nodded, closed her eyes.

'Goodnight, David.'

'Pleasant dreams,' he said, and switched off. Shaw didn't move until Sinashi started crying.

000

Shaw's body aligned to the native clock. She began to feel less exhausted. Her hair had grown. It was messy, unbrushed. Sinashi learned to smile and then before long, he began to crawl about, fascinated with his newfound mobility.

Shaw let him play with a red daisy when she spied a flash of white amongst the shrubbery. Imagining it might be a domestic animal, or perhaps a strange new bird, she pursued it and found an Igogi man weeding around the plants. He was shirtless, his muscular body defined and beautiful. He wore a pleated, deep red skirt-like apparel, clinched at his waist with a metal belt. It fell to his ankles. His bare feet were stained with red soil. Swiftly he clambered up, his hand outstretched. His eyes were a curious shade of blue, somewhat brighter than any Igogi she'd met so far. _Striking. _

'You are Elizabeth,' his voice was very deep. Shaw was so shocked he had time to shake her hand and release her. All she could do was nod.

He had an odd nose. It looked like its perfection had once been marred by a bad break.

'You are the human. David has explained it to me.'

Shaw just nodded again. Then a smaller, warm hand took her elbow.

'Elizabeth.'

'David!' she breathed in surprise and unexpected gratitude.

'My name is Atraharsis,' said the Igogi slowly. English was strange to him. 'You must call me Atri. David does. It is good to meet you at last. David has told me many stories of your adventures.'

Shaw shook her head is disbelief.

'David taught you English?'

Atri nodded his assent.

'As I taught him Igogi. Five forms,' he held up his hand, five fingers erect. 'He has not taught me Spanish yet. I am very disappointed in his lack of _discipline_.'

'Atri was once foremost in his field. Neuro-biology. With a bent to linguistics, Doctor. He has been very eager to meet you.'

Then Atri bowed to her politely.

'I would like to practise my English with you. If you would indulge me. You are smaller than I imagined you would be.'

Elizabeth glanced at the top of David's head. In a moment of humour she put her hand on his shoulder and pulled him down. David made a surprised noise but then his face split into a grin.

'Better?' she said, in decent Igogi.

The big man laughed, a booming sound that shook her to the core.

'You are funny,' Atri said. 'We believe that stage one sentience begins with humour.'

Shaw shook her head mutely.

'There's a sliding scale for sentience?'

'Of course. You are stage one. I am stage three.'

'And...how is that measured, exactly?'

Atri extended his hand. He crooked a finger at his trowel. It stirred, jiggled and flew into his hand. He held it out to Shaw for her examination. She took it.

'No way...David. You're both in on this. You're teasing me.'

'I assure you, it's not a trick,' David said.

Atri smiled. He held his hands up as though he were holding a basketball. Energy sparked between his fingers. It began to spin, then glow. It became spherical. David put a gentle hand on the small of her back. He leaned in, fascinated. The energy ball coalesced into the ghost of a flower, then it solidified into a pink rose. Atri offered it to her.

'No way,' she breathed.

'Stage three sentience,' David said, delightedly. 'Command of energy...through the manipulation of particle physics. Atri has a special gland in his brain. Unfortunately...he isn't keen to let me study it.'

Atri's fingers brushed hers as he handed the rose over. Shaw inspected it.

'How is this possible?'

'The theory is quite simple-' David began.

Atri cut across him.

'I. Am. Magic,' he said, rather sweetly.

'Can all Igogi do that?' Shaw asked.

'No,' Atri said. 'Only the oldest ever receive the Gift.'

Shaw glanced at David.

'And...how long to Igogi live, exactly?'

Atri caressed the petals of his creation with one huge, white fingertip.

'I am eighteen thousand, three hundred and sixty two years old. And still as spry as the day I was hatched,' he smirked. Then he said mildly; 'perhaps we can study each other one day, Doctor Shaw?'

Then he bowed his head and left them.

'Oh, my God,' Shaw breathed, when he was gone.

David folded his arms.

'What are you laughing at?' she asked him suddenly.

'The last time I saw him demonstrate his power so openly, Doctor, it was for an Igogi girl he was courting. I believe that was a display designed to impress.'

Shaw shook her head.

'Did he?' David sounded mildly curious.

'Did he what?'

'Impress.'

'No,' she lied. 'Do you think they'll let us stay?'

'I believe they will,' he nodded. 'I have plenty of learning materials. And some local entertainments too. Would you like to see them?'

Shaw nodded eagerly.

000

Sinashi toddled around, grabbing rocks and worms and trying to eat them. Shaw laughed and took them out of his mouth and sent him walking off again. He disappeared around a corner. Shaw followed. She found him sitting on the ground, playing with the petals of a flower Atri had just given him. He tried to eat it. Atri plucked it out of his mouth with an affectionate touch to his cheek.

'Is he bothering you?' Shaw bent to cuddle Sinashi, kissing the top of his little bald head.

'No,' Atri gave her a bow. 'He is welcome here any time he wants to eat my flowers.'

Atri crouched.

'I see your face in his. But no Igogi Father?'

'The man who made him is dead,' she said simply. 'David is his Father now.'

Atri's shrewd, blue eyes calculated.

'My condolences,' he said.

He departed her company with the feeling that he'd stepped upon forbidden ground. He felt her watching his retreating back.

Atri wondered often about her after that, about who had claimed her. If she'd loved him, or if the baby had been an accident. He wondered about the boy, and the robot man who cared for them. Often he mused if she loved David, if her heart was free. He pushed it out of his mind for the sake of his job but still his imagination clung to it like a desire he couldn't shake for the weeks that followed.

* * *

><p>More to come.<p> 


	5. Waves

5. Waves

Shaw settled into a routine. Time passed. David took to running. He did three circuits of the fields by the river every morning. When Atri realised this, they began to run together. They often raced. David usually won. Shaw wasn't sure how. Atri tried for weeks to beat him. The result was simply a fitter, slimmer Atri. David never changed.

One morning Shaw found three Igogi men in the garden. Each held a long, white stick. David joined them and they bowed to each other. Then they spent the morning beating the crap out of each other. David was fast. His hands blurred. He seemed to know exactly where to put his weight. The largest Igogi swiped for his belly, David bent over backwards like a double-jointed limbo champion. Shaw began to see the length and breadth of Weyland's vision. Supermen who could be better, stronger, fitter, faster. Men who would take orders without question and love their masters enough to be loyal. Men who could suspend their moral, ethical or legal obligations on command. She felt cold thinking about it.

The Igogi left and she didn't see them again for a while, but every week David went out to practise with them and came back bruised. Could these be the friends she'd heard speaking on the tablet all those months ago?

One afternoon, while Sinashi sat on Atri's lap, playing with a toddler-proof holo, Shaw picked up David's stick. David caught her, a tray of drinks in his hands.

'Curious, Doctor?' Shaw could tell it was good natured.

'Show me,' she said.

David nodded.

'Of course. There is a spare in the shed.'

When she returned;

'I hope you don't mind a few bruises.'

Shaw just smirked.

'I can handle myself.'

David smiled.

'I've noticed, Doctor.'

David did show her, from the first of thirty-three possible moves to the last. Then he showed her the sequences that were most often taught to beginners and therefore used first in offence, and how to counter them. One lesson turned into ten, then the lessons became a daily occurrence that Shaw began to anticipate eagerlty. It was a welcome distraction and a chance to try and smack David.

She came away from half her practises with bruises. When she wasn't bruised she was sore from running away from him, or fighting his controlled, synthetic strength. When he'd whacked her soundly on the back of the leg one afternoon, he grinned;

'You'll have to do better than _that_, Dr Shaw.'

She complained that sitting down hurt. David looked smug. She began to think that David had a dark sense of humour, for a robot. Shaw doubled her efforts. Every morning after his run, David would catch the end of her stick with his, hook it down to point at his chest. When his eyebrow went up she knew he was going to tease her. When his face was straight she knew he meant business.

Slowly she gained ground on him – and skill. And then without any warning, he knocked her clean into the pond.

'You're becoming overconfident, Doctor.'

'Did Weyland design you to be a smug git?' she snarked.

'No. I learned that all by myself. Are you proud of me? I've exceeded your human expectations.'

Shaw wiped pond water out of her eyes. David grinned and offered her his stick. Atri got there first.

With a disapproving click he pulled her out and set her on her feet. She fished her stick out.

'Payback. Give me another shot, David. I'll give you a welt to match my bruise.'

David just raised his hand and gestured. _Come. _

Shaw traced the symbols he'd drawn with his body on their first day, her form improving. The sun went down behind the river and she drove him towards the trees, her body obeying a routine that was second nature now. David countered, his face blank, and she got him, square in the belly. It was too soon to call it victory, because in the next second his hand shot out. His fingertips touched her throat. He could feel the blood coursing through her veins. So _close_ to death.

'Get too close, I'll kill you with my bare hands.'

He bowed to her.

'Sinashi will be wanting his dinner,' he said.

Shaw stabbed the end of her stick into the ground and glared after him. _Self satisfied git,_ she thought.

'Tomorrow. I'll get you tomorrow,' she promised him.

'One day you will,' he conceded. Then he smirked at her over his shoulder. 'But it probably won't be tomorrow.'

000

The summer sun blazed on the fresh foliage. The garden had transformed into a cacophony of smells and colours under Atri's care. Sinashi ran across the red lawn, his feet bare, wearing nothing but the loincloth common to all Igogi boys. He found his mentor in the bushes and jumped on him. Atri gave a playful squeak, rolled over and let the boy beat him up.

Shaw watched from a distance. Sinashi loved Atri, he was like a limpet stuck to the big mans side. Shaw laughed when Atri emerged from the bushes with the lad in his bulging arms, turned him upside down and polished the grass with his head. Sinashi snarled at the indignity, fuelled by Atri's amusement. He squirmed and kicked but Atri held him tight, then he spoke;

'Put your hands down, lad.'

Sinashi did as he said.

'What you gonna say, boy?'

'No,' Sinashi refused to beg.

Atri grinned.

'I'll throw you in the river.'

'Mummy would kill you.'

'Would she now. Whose bigger, me or your Mum?'

Sinashi relented.

'Please.'

'_Good_ lad. Brave boys know when to admit defeat,' Atri let his legs go, but steadied him into a handstand and Sinashi held it with remarkable ease, then put his legs down and stood up.

Atri put his hand on the top of Sinashi's head and caressed his soft skin warmly.

'Did your Father teach you that?' Sinashi asked.

'Yes,' Atri nodded.

'I haven't got a real Father.'

'No? Whose the funny little white stick man who pays all the bills then? The one who gives you pocket money?'

'Father is...synthetic.'

'I don't think it matters. You're still his son.'

'Why can't you be my Father?'

Atri softened.

'We can be friends, if you want. But I can't be your Father. Don't you think David would be hurt? After all he's done for you.'

Sinashi thought about it. Then he nodded.

'OK,' he said.

000

David had given Sinashi a bow and arrow. Shaw was waiting for the inevitable accident. A hand, an eye. Something was guaranteed to bleed. Certainly he'd dulled the arrowhead but she still worried. Sinashi was stalking the Igogi man. He fired. Atri turned on his heel and snatched his arrow clean out of the air. He smirked and sent it sailing back to land at the lad's feet.

'How did you _do_ that?' Sinashi stared at him.

'Magic,' Atri teased.

'There's no such thing a magic!'

'How the hell do you know?' Atri knelt. 'You ever seen magic?'

'No,' Sinashi said. 'That's how I know it don't exist!'

'Are you dim?' Atri said, not unkindly. 'Just because you don't see something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Do you see the _wind,_ boy?'

'No-'

'Stop trying to be clever then. It doesn't suit you.'

Sinashi leapt at him, intent to punch him for his insolence and Atri laughed, dodged him and ran. Shaw watched Sinashi chase him. He ran like a much older boy, agile and already beginning to show developing musculature. Atri dodged, fell back, and his foot landed in the pond. Sinashi pushed him. There was a great splash and Shaw clapped her hand over her mouth.

Atri sat up scowling. Sinashi was bent over with laughter, pointing at Atri. He picked himself up, and while the boy was incapacitated, dragged him into the water. Sinashi howled, sitting on Atri's chest, he slapped him playfully across the face. Atri gave the boy a threatening squeeze.

'Don't finish what you can't start, lad.'

'I can take you!' Sinashi promised.

Atri smacked him across the jaw lightly, two fingers, nothing. Sinashi's head whipped back around and he bared his teeth at the older man, who did it right back, and just as Sinashi was about to try and pound him a second time, Shaw interrupted casually.

'So this is why you asked me for swimming pool the other day?'

Sinashi didn't miss a beat. He nodded eagerly. Atri sat up and smiled a bit sheepishly. He brushed the remains of a pond plant off his lap.

'Mummy is going to smack me first, and you after, lad.'

'That's right,' Shaw nodded, as Atri stood up and deposited Sinashi back on the side.

'Could you bend down, please?' she asked him.

Atri laughed.

'I'm safe,' he concluded. 'She can't reach. She might still spank me though.'

Shaw couldn't resist a smile. There was something, an ardent sparkle in Atri's eyes that just made her comfortable. Atri grabbed her. Shaw yelled in shock.

'No! No-no, Atri! Don't you _dare_!'

He dragged her into the water. A splash and a scream later, she was sitting on his lap, panting, soaked to the skin. Her hair clung to her face.

'Bastard!' she yelled.

Atri twitched a smile.

'I slipped,' he said evenly.

'I can't _believe_ you just did that to me!'

Atri's long, strong fingers curled around her hip bones gently. He leaned in and without a hint of shame, breathed in the smell of her hair. Shaw shuddered, suddenly aroused. Her eyes flicked to the house, wondering if David was watching. Atri's face was close to hers.

'Lad, go and get your Mum a towel. And me too.'

As soon as he was gone, Atri caught Shaw's eyes. He leaned in. His lips barely brushed hers when a little, all-too-familiar voice giggled.

'Atri and Mummy, sittin' in a tree-'

'Shut_ up_, boy,' Atri splashed him idly, then he stood up, Shaw in his arms and put her back on the side.

'Aren't you going to kiss her?' Sinashi asked, as Atri went by dripping.

The Igogi shook his head, visibly uncomfortable with the boys line of questioning.

'Not with you looking. Go_ on,_ you little bugger.'

Shaw watched Sinashi run off. Atri turned to give her a decidedly contrite little smirk.

'Forgive me for getting you all wet.'

Shaw closed her eyes, laughing silently. He followed the boy into the house to get dry.

000

Down on the riverbank, some way from the house, Atri wrung out his wet clothes and hung them on a branch to dry. It was warm enough that he didn't really need them. He sat naked on a little outcropping, his feet in the sparkling river water while Sinashi stood waist deep in the river, trying to catch a fish. He missed, came up soaking wet, gasping.

Atri laughed. '_Idiot,_' he said fondly.

Sinashi glared at him.

'Shut up.'

'You want a fish, you'll need to work for it. Want to take one home for your Mother?'

'You're in love with her,' Sinashi said simply.

Atri rolled his eyes.

'So what?'

'Does that mean you're going to be my Father after all?'

Sinashi looked at him. Atri rubbed his scalp idly.

'Lad, you've got a way to go before you can say you're tactful. Come on.'

Atri pulled a knife from his discarded clothes and put it between his teeth. He swam out into the rushing water and found a rock, some seven or eight feet down, to stand on.

'Quiet,' he whispered to Sinashi, who trod water beside him. 'And not a word to your Mum, you hear?'

Shaw ambled down the long path into the woods, wearing only a thin summer dress.

Atri took a deep breath and ducked under the water. Sinashi followed, albeit nervously.

Shaw settled on the riverbank, relaxed, content. The sun was hot but not blinding. The leaves rustled peacefully behind her. Small birds flocked on the river. She put her head down on her knees. At peace. Then something burst out of the water. Atri landed a huge silvery fish and with a quick stab, it stopped flapping.

Shaw couldn't breathe. The water ran off his naked back, down to his hips, his waist. Shaw stared. Atri followed her line of sight and smiled. Shaw gasped when the fish landed at her feet.

'A present from your boy,' said Atri. 'Brain food.'

Shaw fish-mouthed. The _size_ of him. The way he was looking right back, so obviously aware of her interest. Then suddenly she was back in the little room, her head against the wall, the Engineer grunting and sighing, his hands bruising. Something was _wrong_. She was breathing too fast, gasping, clawing at her throat.

'Mummy?' Sinashi climbed out of the river, 'What's wrong!'

Shaw shook her head.

'Mummy!' Sinashi grabbed her by her shoulders.

'Fetch your Father, boy. _Now_.'

Sinashi ran.

Shaw collapsed. The riverbank was damp. Her lungs were empty. Her dress rode up over her thighs. Atri caught her in his huge, white hands, trying to help, unaware. Then the ground rushed away. Atri picked her up. She trembled, squeezing her eyes shut, desperate. Half way up the bank David came running. He fished a paper bag out of his pocket and sealed it over her face. Her eyes streamed tears, her body quaked.

'What's wrong with her?' Atri stroked her hair back gently, his hand far too big against her skull. The intimacy of the gesture wasn't lost on David.

'It's a panic attack,' David said. 'Nothing more. It may have...something...to do with your nudity.'

Atri turned away and headed back for his clothes. He scooped up Sinashi as he went.

Her breathing slowed. She collapsed against David, her body twitching. She buried her face in the softness of his shirt.

'It's over,' David murmured to her. 'It's over now, Elizabeth. Try to breathe. Try to breathe.'

Shaw began to cry, great heaving sobs. David pulled her in closer and rub her back.

'It's OK,' he murmured, close to hear ear. 'I've got you, Elizabeth.'

'I can't do this, David! There's something _wrong_ with me.'

'You're afraid of him. I don't blame you, but he's not like the Engineer, Doctor. Can you walk?'

She nodded. Half way up the bank, his arm around her waist, he spoke softly;

'Elizabeth...I appreciate that you may not want to discuss this, but...I can't help but notice a growing intimacy. Between you and Atri. Did he...harm you? You were alone with him for some time. I just want to be sure-'

'No,' she shook her head quickly.

'But you_ like_ him.'

'God, David,' she clung to him more tightly as he led her into the house.

'You kissed him.'

Shaw stared up, long and hard into his eyes, searching for truth.

'I saw you. In the pond,' David said mildly. 'A gesture like that practically invites intimacy, Doctor.'

She didn't answer.

'He likes you,' David said, as he helped her onto her bed. 'You should know that the Igogi have quite a different view of intimacy...than what you may be used to. We are considered culturally repressed. They are not insular in their affections. Women share their husbands, men their wives. Homosexuality is considered normal. In fact the aberration here...is the absence of a desire to greet your friends with intimate acts.'

'How do you know all this?'

'I have watched them for many years,' David said mildly.

She stared at him.

'Would you like something to drink?'

She shook her head mutely. He left her.

000

'May I offer you a drink?' David asked.

At Atri's nod, David poured him a glass of vegetable juice; his favourite. Atri took it with the eye of a man who knew he was here to get bollocked.

'How is the Doctor?'

'Recovered, thankfully,' said David. He sat down on the other side of the counter. 'Her panic attacks are becoming more frequent, I'm afraid.'

'Am I getting fired?' Atri asked steadily.

'No. Nothing like that. I was wondering. Have you read my book?'

Atri waited a moment before he answered.

'Yes. Why?'

'There are parts of the story of our escape that were never told. It seems apparent that you are...interested...in Dr Shaw. Sexually.'

Atri's eyes lit up. He breathed out through his nose.

'Yes,' he said softly.

'Mmm,' David hummed. 'Elizabeth has not had the best of luck in love. I'm afraid that I'm partly to blame for that. It must be obvious to you that she...copulated...with an Igogi man.'

David's expression morphed into deep concern; 'I can only imagine how that perception must worry her.'

'I dont see any shame in it,' Atri said. 'Was he her husband?'

'No,' David said softly. 'When we escaped the moon LV-223, it was on a decommissioned military craft. Dr Shaw was very ill. An Igogi pirate found a backdoor in the ships programming. A little known fault used by military personell to regain control of hijacked vessels. He took control of our ship. He took interest in her. She was taken from me, stripped and raped. She became pregnant.'

Atri's mask fell.

'I managed to escape my containment. We killed him,' David said calmly. 'Then I put twelve stitches inside her body. This was just a month after an emergency caesarian section to remove a parasitic, alien lifeform from her womb. Somehow..she survived it all. Though I have to say...for a long time, too long, as she sweated, dreaming dreams no woman should have to endure...I thought I would have to bury her alone.'

Atri nodded.

'And then I pulled you from that cell and gave you to my kids, to teach you what it means to be here. To be Igogi.'

'Yes,' David nodded. 'I have never had any friends. Before.'

'Well now you do.'

'Friends are supposed to help each other,' David mused. he came to decision. 'If you want Dr Shaw, you will need to be more subtle in your approach.'

Atri hung on that for a moment. Then he said;

'You love her,' sharp blue eyes pinned him where he stood. David was always ready with a reply. This time, he had nothing. His voice was gone, his mind empty. His heart burned.

'Elizabeth has never looked at me the way she looks at you,' David said. He turned his face away. 'I wish...she would.'

Atri stood up quietly. He patted David on the back.

'Listen. You know how it works for us. One mate, many lovers. It should be the same for her as it is for any Igogi woman. Same for you, too.'

David met his eyes.

'Fuck, David. I hate it when you cry. You look like a little kid.'

Atri pulled him into a hug.

'If you want her I'm not going to stand in your way. You're more human than I am. She knows that. She's more likely to welcome you...than me.'

David wiped the tears away.

'What if she needed both of us?' David asked then. 'Elizabeth has always been complex...perhaps the solution is complex too.'

The Igogi man stared at him.

'We should find out what she wants,' Atri said then. 'It's no good hypothesising...when the answer is accessible. Is it?'

'How?' David asked.

'I think I have a couple of ideas.'

000

Shaw stood on the riverbank, watching the water. Footsteps at her back made her turn, but it was Atri, his pleated garment shifting around his legs. He joined her.

'Am I disturbing you?'

'No. I thought I'd come back for another look. When there aren't any..._naked men,_ in the water,' she smiled.

Atri chuckled.

'Well,' he said. 'It's a little cold today. I'm sorry if I frightened you, Doctor.'

'Eli,' Shaw said. 'I'm not really a Doctor anymore.'

'But David calls you-'

'David is a robot,' Shaw smiled. 'He likes his routine. Perhaps it's his way of coping. With being so far from Earth. From humans. Sometimes I wonder what it might have been like for him if we'd never come here.'

'He told me once that his human family disliked him. His sister, especially.'

'She did,' Shaw nodded. 'She disliked everyone. And everyone disliked her.'

Atri glanced up at the rustling red leaves.

'From what I've seen, you and David seem to be very close. Whether he's a robot or not.'

Shaw shrugged.

'I suppose we had no choice. After Sinashi was born...it was just the three of us. We had to look out for each other.'

'I didn't really mean close in that sense.'

Shaw shook her head.

'I've never though of David that way. He's...not really human. I suppose it would be like making love to a machine.'

'But he feels affection,' Atri frowned.

'Yes, so he says, but how much of it is real? It could just be his programming. We'll never know.'

'How much of _yours_ is real?'

Shaw stared at him.

'_All_ of it.'

'And how do I know you feel at all?'

Atri pointed to her face.

'It shows on your face. _That's_ how I know. David shows his too, in his own way. You obviously don't see him like I do. I've known him a very long time. He laughs and cries just like you.'

Shaw chewed her lip.

'You don't want to see it,' Atri said insightfully. 'You want to be the one that _God_ made, whole and pure, in his own image. That's a foolish system of belief! One alien contact and the whole charade comes crashing down. You aren't the only sentient species in the galaxy, and you aren't the most advanced. You need to get used to seeing similarities, girl.'

Shaw folded her arms. Before she could speak he said;

'David loves you. I can see it plainly. He wants to be what you need. You won't let him. You won't let me either. You're afraid.'

Shaw turned to leave. Her chest had gone tighty. She wanted to get away. Atri watched her with his unique, alien eyes. His awareness shone out of them, disturbing, peaceful. Deep as a sky full of stars. He caught her and turned her round. He sank to his knees in front of her, evening out their height difference and embraced her gently.

'You insult me then you want to cuddle?' she said, coolly.

'It wasn't an insult,' Atri said simply. 'It was the truth. He loves you. And so do I.'

Shaw was rooted to the spot, her hands damp, chest tight. His hand was warm on the base of her back. He put his head against her chest and closed his eyes. She wrapped her arms tentatively around his neck. He was soft, warm, firm. And he smelled like ancient books. _Delicious._

He tugged her down, arranged her gently in his lap and buried his nose in her hair. Her hands became automatic, her body, despite her feelings of underlying panic, completely betrayed her. He nuzzled her cheek softly, then kissed her. Heat bloomed between her legs, her hands tightened suddenly on his shoulders. His gentle kiss morphed into soft, passionate heat. Deeper and deeper, flowering in her belly. Shaw made a soft little noise, pressed closer.

'Don't be frightened,' he broke away to whisper. 'He knows. I _told_ him-'

'You mean David?' she stalled.

Atri nodded. He found her lips again, his breath unsteady.

'I told him I want you as much as he does.'

Shaw pulled away, gasping, as the panic attack kicked in.

'Oh my God-' she whispered. 'David!' she tried to yell but it was more of a whisper.

Atri carried her home. He'd expected this. It still hurt.

David brought the bag as soon as he saw Atri coming. While Atri stroked the back of Sinashi's skull gently, comfortingly, David helped her upstairs and into bed. She grabbed his wrist.

'There's something wrong with me, David!'

'There's nothing wrong with you,' he said calmly. He embraced her softly and laid his blonde head on top of hers. 'You're perfect.'

'Compliments?' she smiled. 'From you?'

David drew back.

'Yes,' he said.

Shaw hugged him back.

'David. I know how much you've done for us. I don't hate you. Not anymore.'

David smiled warmly.

'I'm glad to hear that.'

David's eyelids fluttered closed briefly, like butterflies against her hair. She warmed him. Made him content. Make him feel wanted.

'Cup of tea?' he murmured softly, stroking her hair once.

Shaw laughed, tearfully. Then she nodded.

'OK, David. Sure.'

* * *

><p>TBC...more soon.<p> 


	6. Caged

6. Caged

The blue supergiant sun sank behind Anatak. The Polar Observatory cut her lights. Blackout blinds were drawn. Twin telescopic irises pinned and focused, their attention on distant regions of unmapped space, hardlines fizzing with incoming data, feeding an intricate neural net with enough information to keep the researchers happy for another day. David tilted back his head. The manufactured wind, blowing from vents embedded deep on the outer rim, ruffled warm fingers through his hair. In the shadow of Anatak, the darkness was near absolute, broken only by a swipe of stars, like liquid diamond slashed across a velvet drape. Beautiful. David could see the shadows cast by blades of grass even in the dark. The exquisite detail of alien ships moored on the rim.

He smiled at the sky, at peace. Remembering. He pressed the sensor on the hallway panel to unmist the walls. The house transformed into a glass box. He padded silently into Shaw's bedroom. She slept soundly, sprawled like a starfish. For a luxuriant moment he admired her dark crescent eyelashes. The planes of her face. The curve of her bare shoulder.

'David?' she sounded confused. 'Have you been watching me?'

'Did I wake you?'

'Yes,' she murmured.

He left his chair and settled on the edge of her bed.

'I'm sorry,' he said gently. 'You mumble in your sleep, Doctor. Were you dreaming?'

'Yes. David-' she tugged him down by his collar. 'Just come here. Please?'

He sank into the pillows slowly, like a languid creature intent on the enjoyment of every moment. He memorised her. The smell of her hair as she turned and embraced him. The way her breathing evened out. The way her little hands relaxed.

'_David_,' she whispered, just a breath against his chest. Then she was gone, her eyelids flickering rapidly in the onset of REM sleep.

In the distance, his favourite constellation made its interstellar leap into the sky. He fancied it looked like a mermaid. Or perhaps an angel. His embrace tightened, but Shaw was too far gone to appreciate its meaning.

000

Sinashi got into his first fight with the neighbour's son. Their argument ended with a black eye and a split lip. Shaw grabbed him by the shoulder.

'_Stop it_, Sinashi!' she yelled.

With a single, savage shrug he dislodged her hand and turned his black eyes on her in fury. His lips curled back in simple, open warning.

'Don't you _dare_ growl at me!' she snapped.

'ENOUGH!' Atri's voice cut through Shaw's secret pain. He threw his trowel at the dirt. It lodged there like a knife. He strode at them with a muttered curse.

'Get_ up_,' he snapped at the boys.

Reluctantly, Sinashi did as he was told. He wiped the blood off his lip.

'Look at your Mother, boy!'

Sinashi did. Shaw hid her tears behind her hand, ineffectually.

'Go home,' Atri turned his attention on the smaller lad. 'Tell your Mother what you've done. I'll be checking.'

Sinashi bared his teeth in fury. Atri growled a low, warning rumble. It wasn't a joke. When Sinashi failed to show his submission to Atri's challenge for dominance, the big mans jaw clicked forward. His glassy incisors flashed in a threat display that Sinashi understood perfectly. The boy broke eye contact first. Atri's face morphed back to normality.

'Real men help each other,' Atri said evenly. _'Idiots_ fight. Are you an idiot, boy?'

Sinashi didn't answer.

'Answer me!'

'No,' Sinashi said.

'One day you'll be as strong as me. You better learn to hold that temper, or your Mother will cry more. And so will I.'

'Real men don't cry!' Sinashi bit.

Atri knelt in front of him. He pointed to Sinashi's eyes.

'Don't they?'

Atri brushed it away, his hand far more gentle than his voice. Shaw raked her fingers through her hair.

'You owe your Mother your apology.'

Sinashi knew better than to argue. This time. He turned to Shaw and whispered it to her belly. Shaw let him run off. She folded her arms, uncomfortable.

'I can't believe how strong he is,' she whispered. 'Jesus.'

Atri stood. 'Igogi boys are. When I was his age I could throw my Brother across the yard. Wait until he comes of age. Suddenly he'll treble in size and before you know it, he'll be a mass of muscle who can't control is anger.'

Shaw shook her head.

'I don't know what to do. We thought he'd be better off in here. I think...I've isolated him for too long.'

'You have,' Atri said bluntly. 'He needs other boys. When I'm not here I help run a centre for lads. It keeps the scientist's kids out of harms way, and it keeps me busy. Sinashi would fit right in. He'll soon find his place in the pecking order.'

Shaw hesitated.

'At least come and have a look around?'

Shaw put her eyes on the sky.

'Alright,' she conceded. 'I...I don't want him to be violent. But...he's picking it up all by himself. Where does he get it from? David's never taught him that.'

'Don't look at _me_,' Atri held his hands up in amused surrender. 'I never taught him to fight. It's in his blood. He knows it, deep down. He has to be the best. The strongest. Or he'll never get the house, the girl, the job. It's innate. Our genetic memory runs strong, Eli. It's caused the Igogi problems in the past. At one point, aggression was coded into us deliberately.'

'That_ isn't_ very comforting,' she managed a tight smile.

Atri smiled guiltily.

'He can learn to control it. I did.'

000

Atri swept Sinashi onto his shoulders. Shaw followed, roasting in the Observatory's artificial summer. Sinashi smirked at other boys as they passed, pleased to have Atri's undivided attention. He rustled the leaves above him and plucked two handfuls to toss at his Mother. Shaw laughed and threw some back.

'I could do with some of that,' Shaw smiled quietly to David. She'd woken that morning in his arms after the deepest sleep she'd had in weeks. She felt bright. 'What do you think, David? Want to give me a ride?'

'I'm afraid we'd make _quite_ a spectacle of ourselves,' David smirked.

Shaw hooked her arm through his. It was bare to the bicep. She liked his warmth. Her pupil's dilated. Just a fraction. Enough for him to notice. Heat crept up his spine. He marvelled at its crystalline perfection. All _his_. Her dark eyes sparkled. He mused on how beautiful she was, especially when she smiled. He stuck close to her, delighted by the flat of her palm on his wrist.

Atri brought them to a complex. It was made of twelve domed towers, like unnaturally pert breasts aligned in rows. There was a garden and a field. A small group of boys sat outside, discussing a game animatedly. Another bounced a small, leathery ball and took a pot-shot at a target. He missed. It smelled of toasted bread inside and reminded Shaw of a day care centre she'd been forced to attend after her Father's untimely death.

The biggest boy looked Sinashi up and down. Sinashi bore his scrutiny. The boy poked him in the chest.

'Weed!' he laughed.

Sinashi bowed his head in clean, evident shame. When the older boy smiled triumphantly, Sinashi smacked him hard around the face and pointed a finger at his nose. The gesture was clear enough. _Enough of that. _Shaw found herself unnaccountably proud, despite her dislike of his violent tendency.

'He's a _strong_ one,' Atri smiled lopsidedly. 'Go on, lad, show 'em who's boss.'

Shaw chewed her lip as Sinashi walked away. She went outside, her lungs closing. David followed.

'Are you alright, Elizabeth?'

'I'm fine,' she whispered, as she leaned her head on the railing. It started. Chest tight, breathing frantic. She tried to calm down, keep it together but her panic escalated, pushed on by knowing she'd brought her son to the very culture which had created a rapist. Shaw grabbed for David, her knees gone. She clutched him. Atri appeared in the doorway.

'Eli-' he rumbled his concern.

'I'm fine,' Shaw gasped for air.

'You most definitely aren't fine, Elizabeth,' David held the bag tightly. 'I need to take her home. Will you bring Sinashi back later?'

Atri nodded. David lifted Shaw and carried her through the heat to the nearest hoverpod station.

000

David lowered her into bed. The paper bag was still crumpled in her hand. She put her head on David's shoulder and closed her eyes against the world. _So comforting_. He made her lay down, his hands gentle.

'I'm pathetic,' Shaw confessed, her lip wobbling. She chewed it to keep from crying.

'You're _human_,' he said mildly.

Her eyes were full of tears.

'I used to be so strong!'

'You're _still_ strong.'

She reined in her tears.

'If you were human...it'd be different.'

David wasn't sure what to make of the feeling inside him. Was it excitement? Apprehension? Grief?

'Different?' he covered her up. 'How?'

Shaw bit her lip. She sat up suddenly and kissed him, brief, sweet and gentle. He held her face and watched her organic eyes. She kissed him again. His skin sensitized. He made a soft, eager noise, his hands tightening on her possessively. His heart ignited for her, burning brightly, straining his processors, interrupting normal functions.

'Elizabeth-' he pressed his forehead to hers.

Shaw wound her arms around his neck. She tugged him down. His heart thumped. Delighted, confused, afraid, _excited_. All impossible. His eyelids fluttered closed. She shared her open mouth with him, slowly and then with more urgency. He hardened, his synthetic nerves firing pleasure signals. His heart pounded. Lines of code he hadn't known existed began to scroll faster and faster. He arched into her touch.

Shaw tugged at his shirt and he shed it for her. Her hands were all over him instantly. He squirmed, his mouth open in shock. Her nimble fingers went to work on his bottom half and suddenly, she took him into her mouth. She sucked him. She used her tongue, licking and coaxing until he bucked his hips helplessly. He buried his hands in her hair and encouraged her until the code was going so fast he couldn't read it. Something was growing inside him.

'David, I want to-' she stopped, bit her lip. She took him in her hand. 'Can we?'

'Of course.'

Tentatively he rubbed his thumbs along the inside of her thighs. He'd thought he might think only of the operation. Of removing the sticky, rotten mass from her ruined womb. He didn't. She was pink, new, beautiful. Whole. _Amazing_. She was no longer the sum of her parts. No longer blood, flesh and bone. Not to him. There was something that only shone through her eyes and her smile that he needed to possess.

'David?' she bit her lip, afraid. 'Am I...OK?'

He realised that she was worried about her appearance.

'You're beautiful,' he smiled. 'Rather too perfect, actually.'

She reached for him, pulled him down on top of her.

'Do you...know _how_?' she asked softly.

'I've read extensively, Doctor,' he smiled. 'But I've never. Tried this. First hand. Not with a human anyway.'

Shaw gazed into his eyes. There was no hint of his artificial nature there.

'Like this,' she breathed.

She guided him gently into her body, wrapped her legs around him and drew him in. David made a strange, strangled noise of shock as her body enfolded him. White light shot up his spine.

'Oh God, David-' it spilled from her lips unexpectedly, making him fizzle inside. 'Move your hips...in and out!'

He followed her instruction. Once he'd started he didn't want to stop. She was whimpering, grabbing him, her nails scratching his synthetic skin, her mouth open, flushed pink down to her perfect breasts. He buried his nose in her neck, breathed in her scent.

She tightened around him. He groaned, his teeth grazing the skin of her throat. Her insides squeezed, and this time the feeling took him. She yelled suddenly, arched. Then the building light exploded and for a single, glorious moment he was completely free. His mind, untethered. He floated, eyes closed in a sea of brilliance while his processors cleared and restarted. When he opened his eyes his arms had locked and Elizabeth was panting beneath him. He was still sheathed in her body and sheened with sweat.

'Did I hurt you?' he whispered.

'No,' she clung to him. 'David...I always wondered if you could do that.'

'My Weyland intended me to be..indistinguishable from a real man.'

He moved off her carefully. Shaw rolled into him. He stroked lazy fingers up and down her back.

'Did you...wonder...aboard the Prometheus?' he couldn't help himself.

'Yes,' she nodded. 'I don't understand how a man like Weyland could have made someone like you.'

David's face registered sweet, blissful surprise.

'Someone,' he whispered it back, his throat full. A tear dropped onto her face. 'Thank you.'

Shaw closed her eyes and cuddled closer.

'Stay with me,' she breathed to him.

000

Shaw opened her eyes. She could hear Sinashi playing outside. David was gone, just an indentation left over where he'd lain. He'd risen recently. The sheets were still warm, bunched up around her. She was slippery and satisfied. She found David in the kitchen, methodically chopping vegetabes and piling them into a box for cooking. She slid onto her breakfast stool.

'Good evening, Doctor,' his smile contained a hint of secrecy, a measure of flirtation. It was a secret smile, just for her.

'I hope you washed your hands,' she quipped.

David laughed softly.

'As a matter of fact, I did.'

When had she stopped seeing him a robot, and started seeing a man? Why had it taken her so long to see how handsome he was?

'David. What are we going to do?'

David didn't stop chopping. He didn't look up.

'About Sinashi,' she finished.

There was a minute change in his posture that suggested relief.

'Though I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to, I expect it has something to do with his recent...behaviour.'

Shaw shook her head and smiled.

'Apparently it's normal here,' she said. 'I'm not even going into how many ways he_ isn't_ normal.'

David smirked to himself and put the tray in the oven. Shaw sought his eyes.

'He's got to fit in, David. Whether I like it or not. Whatever fitting in means.'

David contemplated that.

'Perhaps we should ask Sinashi what he wants.'

Shaw flushed pink. She hadn't even thought of that. David emptied the peel into the waste disposal. Shaw eased closer. David felt her warmth at his back. He smiled and turned to embrace her warmly.

'David-' she said his name somewhat playfully.

She stood on tip-toes for a kiss. David bent his head and met her mouth with his. When he hardened she smiled against his lips and brushed her hand over his bulge. He pressed closer, charmed, fascinated by this newfound closeness.

'How strong are you?' she whispered.

'What would you like me to do?' his arched eyebrows and wide grin suggested he was eager, whatever it was.

'Hold me against the wall.'

'Certainly,' he nodded. 'Now?'

'Later,' she bit her lip. Then she added softly; 'I want to look forward to it.'

She strolled into the garden. He had to wait for his erection to go down before he could follow her.

Outside, Sinashi had found out how to use wind and strength to fire the arrow straight. He hit the yellow marker, not far from the bullseye. Shaw crept up behind him. She saw his ear twitch and knew she'd been discovered. He dropped the bow and put his arms aorund her neck with a grin. She hugged him. He was getting big. Far too heavy to pick up easily, though David could still manage it.

'Well done,' she smiled, stroking his smooth white cheek. He grinned. 'When you hit the bullseye, I'm going to get you a treat. What do you think?'

Sinashi nodded eagerly.

'Sinashi,' she said softly, 'David and I were wondering, if you wanted to spend some more time at the centre?'

Sinashi's dark blue eyes flicked up the David.

'Atri says they have archery classes.'

Sinashi thought about it.

'We'll still teach you at home,' she said. 'For now. Unless...school?'

'I don't want to go to school,' he said evenly.

Sinashi glanced at David.

'Because you don't like being told what to do,' Shaw teased him kindly.

Sinashi gave her a sly little grin.

'You don't have to go,' David said. 'It was only a suggestion.'

'I want to go with Atri,' he said then. 'I want to be a pilot.'

Shaw had to struggle to keep her surprise and dread hidden.

'Oh,' Shaw said softly. She faked a smile quickly. 'That's good. But you know...you might find something else.'

'No,' Sinashi said. 'I won't.'

000

Shaw's bare toes brused the blood-red grass from the edge of a public bench made for much bigger bottoms. She'd seen this park from the hoverpod network but she'd never had the nerve to come down here. Sinashi played with an older boy and a girl on the edge of maturity. Huge white bodies passed to and fro. Shaw wasn't comfortable. She began to regret leaving David in the upper town. He was only a few minutes away but she wondered if she had a paper bag around, just in case.

Then a shadow covered her. Shaw seized in terror, trying to control the oncoming panic but it was only Atri. He foded himself into the seat. Even sitting down he was still a good head taller than she. He held out both hands in a gesture of peace.

'Chill,' he smiled.

'You startled me,' she said.

'Sorry. David sent me down to check on you,' he leaned against the back of the bench. 'Listen. You're going to want to kick my ass for telling you this, but David told me what happened to you. You don't have to freak out every time I come near you.'

Shaw struggled with her panic.

'What did he tell you?'

Atri's eyes didn't waver. He had the look of a man who'd seen much but rarely chose to speak of it.

'That some spacejockey asshole raped you. That's Sinashi's Father.'

Shaw turned her face away.

'I'll kill him,' she murmured. 'The bloody_ bastard-_'

'Well, forgive me an opinion, Eli...but the way I see it is pretty simple. If he hadn't raped you...you'd be dead.'

Shaw stared at him.

'The Igogi consider life sacred, or you'd be dead. There's no way the Council would have let an alien creature wander about the Observatory for no good reason bar your own...very human...curiosity. You were lucky. And unlucky.'

He gazed at Sinashi.

'Did I ever tell you what I did before I became a gardener?'

'No.'

'I was a consultant scientist for the military. I was deployed twice to assist on alien worlds, teaching advanced cultures how to build space craft and harness natural resources. For a while I worked as a researcher too, gathering data on worlds for terraforming. I got sick of the paperwork. The secrecy. I got sick of_ space_. I got a job caring for sick kids. That's how I met David. He was on probation, a suspected spy. I managed to get an interview with him. He told me all about your escape. I admit I was a skeptic at first. But after a bit he managed to convince me that he was sentient. I took him to meet my kids, hoping he'd learn our culture from them. He did.'

'And now you plant our flowers?'

Atri smiled darkly.

'Yes. For the last two years I've planted your flowers. But for the first I was David's minder. His Igogi guide. I managed to convince Ninurta to give him a chance to integrate here. Then he wrote his book and the rest is history. I spent years around space-jockeys. They're drugged sky high to keep them alert and aggressive. Out in space there's no immediate law. Crimes are hard to detect, prove and punish. The man that raped you is not representative of our whole race._ I'm_ not like that. So don't freak out. OK?'

For a time she wandered the rich, plump red grass at his side. Atri walked slowly, his pleated toga making soft noises as it conformed to his movements. He leaned his back against a huge, white tree and gazed over the park. Shaw sat on a root, tense, worried.

'You know,' he said lightly. He drew something out of his pocket. 'I came prepared.'

Shaw looked at what he offered to her. It was a paper bag. She laughed.

'Keep it. I might not need it,' she lied to herself.

Atri sat down beside her. Not too close, not too far.

'It must be strange for you. Do you miss your own planet?'

Shaw privately thought that her world had come with her on the Prometheus. How long had it been since she last thought of Charlie? A lance of guilt shot through her chest, worsened her anxiety.

'Sometimes I think about it. But Sinashi needs to be here. And I don't really have anything to go back for.'

Shaw gazed at the weird, bright white sky. Atri changed the subject;

'I thought you might like to know. There's a way to give Sinashi a normal life here, if you want?'

Shaw turned to him.

'What's _normal_?'

Atri shifted a bit uncomfortably.

'Well,' he said. 'He'll not grow to be as big as Igogi men. When he gets a bit older it'll start to show as other boys race ahead of him. Then he'll feel different.'

Shaw swallowed around a lump.

'And what do you suggest?'

'There's a stem cell treatment that would bring him closer to our genome than yours. I think he'd thank you for it, because if he wants to be a pilot, he's going to need to be as big as me.'

Shaw's saliva was thick in her mouth. She breathed out softly, controlled.

'You want to take away my genetic material, and replace it with Igogi DNA, so that my son can be less like me?'

Atri blinked once.

'It's up to you,' he said. 'But Sinashi deserves a normal life. Can you give it to him?'

Shaw shook her head. She rose quickly.

'I've heard enough,' she said. 'You've gotten far too close to this family.'

Atri gazed up at her from the ground. He sighed through his nose.

'Alright,' he said.

Shaw took a couple of steps away and bumped into a solid mass. An Igogi man pushed her and sent her sprawling. She blinked furiously, winded.

'Take your whore somewhere else!' the stranger snarled.

A big white hand sealed itself like a facehugger around her head. Then there was a thump, a grunt, and the hand released sharply. The stranger staggered back with black blood streaming from his nose. Atri snarled, his sharp teeth glittering. A low, warning thrum emanated from his chest. The Igogi weighed his chances of winning the fight and decided that though Atri wasn't that big, he was stronger. He cursed and backed off.

'Arrogant little shit,' Atri muttered, his hand on Shaw's shoulder protectively.

Shaw gripped her hip. It was bruised along with her elbows.

'Are you alright?' he asked.

Shaw glanced at his knuckles. There was Igogi blood on them. She wasn't sure whose.

'I'll live,' she nodded.

'Good,' Atri murmured.

Shaw tried to swallow her tears. Her body protested this treatment. She wasn't as young or as fit as she used to be. She kept her eyes down. Atri rubbed her back.

'Come on, let's find Sinashi.'

Sinashi was standing silently behind a tree, pointing his blunt arrow at Atri's bare belly. He fired it and Atri let it hit then tossed it back at him.

'Little shit,' he grunted, good-naturedly. Sinashi grinned, but then he saw his Mother's tears and suddenly he didn't seem so confident.

He caught her hand. His fingers were nearly as long as hers. Shaw tried to calm it, tried to relax. But then she started to gasp.

'David!' she yelped, as she stumbled. She gripped a tree root, her self control in tatters. Sinashi started to cry. It was the first time she'd seen him do that in ages.

'David-' it was little more than a whisper.

Sinashi backed into Atri's legs. Then he ran. Shaw tried to call him back but there was no air to use, she gasped, her vision fogging. She could hear Sinashi shouting frantically for David. Then Atri fished out the bag, opened it and sank beside her.

His hand was warm on the back of her head. She could feel her tears wetting her hair and face, soaking into the paper. She choked on her own air, and passed out in Atri's lap. He caught her, tilted her back. He touched her hair, fascinated by its softness and exquisite, alien beauty. He brushed a single fingertip along her nose, along her eyebrow. She was so beautiful. Her limp body was warm, soft. Then David came running, whatever he'd been upto in the market forgotten.

000

Shaw woke up in her bed, the drapes half drawn. David had put one of her favourite oils in the burner and left the door ajar. She could hear Sinashi downstairs, repeating the days learnings. She swung her legs out of bed. She stood up, and collapsed. The thump brough them all running. David found her there, a slumped, confused heap. He picked her up. His chest was warm, firm, familiar. She wanted to kiss him but Sinashi was watching. Atri put his hand on the boys head. He had to bend his elbow to do it.

Shaw flopped where David put her. She turned her face to him in mute shock at her own condition. His concern shone though his eyes.

'David-' her eyes went straight to Sinashi.

'It's alright now, Elizabeth,' David assured her. 'You've had a shock, that's all. Try to rest.'

She nodded, mutely.

'That's it,' David said gently, his rhythmic hand a singular comfort. 'That's it.'

When she opened her eyes again it was dark. The stars were out and the house was quiet. Beside her, David was curled up, his relaxed face pressed into a pillow.

'David,' she breathed his name. She needed the bathroom and she didn't trust her legs. He didn't stir. Shaw couldn't find the strength she needed. Something was wrong inside her. She tried to stand but her legs turned to jelly. She sank two steps from the bed with a cry of pain. David hurtled out of sleep.

'Elizabeth-' he threw the blankets off and came to pick her up. 'Why didn't you wake me.'

Shaw gripped his shoulders.

'Something's gone wrong inside me,' she whispered. 'David. Why can't I stand up? I can't walk!'

'I already ran a scan on you,' he assured her softly. 'While you were sleeping. There's nothing medically wrong with you. I'm afraid that this is more of a...mental...issue.'

'Are you saying I'm crazy?'

David thought about it as he helped her onto the toilet.

'That's one way to put it. I prefer to think of you as merely...damaged. For now.'

Shaw felt tears rising. David lowered her onto the loo and bent to look at her.

'We'll finish this conversation in a minute, shall we?'

She nodded gratefully.

'Call when you're ready.'

000

Shaw lay in bed. Sinashi sat beside her, his black eyes brooding.

'Father said Atri is going to be my tutor.'

'Did he,' Shaw managed to smile for her son. 'That's fine, love.'

Shaw tried to kiss him but a wave of nausea swept over her. In the end she tugged him down.

'You'll be bigger than me soon.'

Sinashi nodded. Then he looked at his hands.

'Why do you fall over so much?'

Shaw wasn't sure what to say.

'I-I don't know, Sinashi.'

'Father says you're depressed.'

Shaw bit her lip to keep from crying.

'Will you get better soon?' he asked softly.

She felt a tear slip down her face and swiped it away quickly. She smiled, even though it hurt.

'Very soon,' she promised.

'I don't want you to die.'

Shaw snapped like a dry reed. She hid her face behind her hand. This time Sinashi didn't back away. He put his bald head on her chest and hugged her. He was strong enough that he could slide his arms under her and not need her to lift her weight. She trembled, her whole body gone out of her control. Her boy breathed softly against her breast. She didn't know what to say.

When Sinashi had gone to the centre, David came in to offer her a shower. Her self respect already at zero, Shaw nodded wordlessly. He helped her out of her clothes and into the stall. The hot water cascaded down her back, washing away days of sweat, grime and despair. David reached around her, one hand holding her waist, for the soap.

'Relax, Elizabeth' he murmured. 'Trust me. It's going to be alright. I promise.'

He washed her, his movements slow and gentle, little circles on her skin. Shaw put her head on his shoulder. Her tears mingled with the water. He handed her sponge to wash her private parts, an act of understanding that strengthened her. Then he washed her hair, his fingers a steady, gentle pressure. He rinsed it, applied the odd gel she liked that made it soft, rinsed it again. Then he reached for a towel. He wrapped it around both of them in a moment of unexpected intimacy, his wet chest pressed to hers. His eyes were full of life. He gazed at her.

'David-' she breathed.

He kissed her gently, his lips soft, passionate.

'I don't know what's wrong with me,' she gripped his shoulders.

'Elizabeth-' he was close enough to kiss again. 'It would be difficult to find you a counsellor here. But...if you would like to talk to someone, I am qualified. Even though I appreciate I'm a little too close to the root of the problem.'

Shaw swallowed around a lump of grief. Tears squeezed out of the corners of her eyes. David sat her on the edge of the bed and dried her hair slowly, patiently. Then he slid a sleeping shirt over her body and held her. She trembled.

'Atri seems to care for you a great deal, Elizabeth,' David smoothed her damp hair. 'I wonder if you're running away from him the only way you know how.'

'Why would I want Atri when I have you?' she questioned him, small fingers playing idly with his hair.

'Your body does,' he stated simply. 'It doesn't lie, not to me. You've wanted him since you first met him, and I'm not so stupid to think I can stand in your way. I want to give you what you _need_, Elizabeth.'

'You already do,' she whispered. She met his eyes and kissed him gently.

000

Shaw rolled over, sweaty, afraid. She didn't know how long she'd been in her room. She couldn't remember how many days had passed, if Sinashi was at the centre or in the garden, or messing about in the house. David came and went, bringing food, drink.

She slept most of her time away, submerged in a place where memories could be sorted and filed. She dreamed of the Prometheus and woke soaked in sweat, screaming, clutching at her belly, so certain she'd find herself eviscerated. She dreamed of the Space Jockey, his grunts and thrusts, his angry eyes. She dreamed of cryosleep and for a time she convinced herself that this was all a nightmare.

A knock roused her from sleep.

'Come in,' she choked.

She'd been hoping for Sinashi, or David. Instead, Atraharsis stepped inside and pushed the door closed behind him.

'Hello, Eli,' he said. 'I thought you might to sample the delights of the season,' he said. 'If, that is, you even know which season it is.'

'Winter,' Shaw murmured, sarcastically.

Atri handed her a wrapped bunch of beautiful, big blooms, the kind of vibrant flowers that only the most imaginative of Gods could have created. They were like cups made of light, shimmering with radiant, rainbow seeds.

'Sinashi misses you,' Atri said evenly. 'He thinks you're going to die. He won't come and see you. I think he fears it'll be the last time.'

Tears clawed up her throat. Atri cleared his.

'Don't you want to live?' he asked her, his direct approach like a slap to the face.

'I already died on the Prometheus.'

'Not to him you didn't.'

Shaw closed her eyes tightly. She was in pain, but it was nothing that bandages could fix.

'Not to me,' he added. 'Do you want me to go away? Leave you and your family in peace?'

Shaw shook her head.

'What use am I to David or Sinashi like this?' she said, thickly. 'They _need _you.'

'The boy also needs his Mother. If you need me to leave so he can have you back-'

'No!' Shaw whispered. 'No.'

Atri sighed.

'Whatever happened on that ship, you need to get it out of your head. Don't get angry with me. I want you to get up and walk, and be strong again. For him.'

Atri sighed very softly.

'I want you to live.'

Shaw hid her face in her hands. The tears leaked through. Atri reached out to touch her back and stopped. Every time he laid a land on her, she had a panic attack. He left her there.

* * *

><p>TBC..soon.<p> 


	7. Unbalanced

7 - Unbalanced

Shaw's time passed in a blur. She watched the seasons change. Eventually, Atri visited her. He sat with his pleated robe tucked under his knees.

'You've lain here long enough,' he said.

Shaw frowned.

'What does that mean?'

Atri put his hands on her, strong enough to hold her knees together and her chest flat to the bed.

'What're you doing! _Jesus_, Atri!'

Something tingled at the back of her mind. Bright, strange and_ invasive_.

'I should've done this a long time ago, when David told me he planned to take you home. To a doctor on Earth.'

_'What!?_' Shaw gaped at him.

Atri loosened his grip when he realised she wasn't going to struggle.

'He knows I need to be here. With Sinashi. Why would he-?'

'Well I guess he figured your health was a bit more important,' Atri said coolly. 'Keep still, you hear? If I get this wrong you'll come out of it worse than you went in.'

Shaw wriggled suddenly, violently, but for all her best efforts she simply wasn't strong enough to throw him off. He dragged her into his lap, her head against his belly, one hand on her breastbone. She panted;

'Get the fuck _off_ me, Atri!'

'No,' he said evenly. 'Keep still.'

Shaw gave a strangled little gasp as blinding white light surged into her mind. She Atri took control of her body. She sagged from the neck down. His eyelids flickered rapidly. He spoke inside her mind;

**You'll thank me when it's over.**

'I-I'll never thank you,' she tried to say. Her lips wouldn't move.

_Silence._ Searing pain shot down her spine. She screamed. No sound came out but she heard it in her head. For a second of foolish hope, she thought it might throw him from her mind. It didn't. He clung on. Memories played on the screen of her mind. The caesarian scar tissue sparked. Old emotional wounds opened. Everything she'd seen and felt on board the Prometheus was laid bare. Shaw screamed and battered the walls inside a box made of light. A door clicked open deep in her head. The grief and fear she'd held down all this time flooded out. She drowned in it, screaming, gasping in the undertow.

She began to feel it would swallow her, destroy her from the inside out. Then it drained away abruptly. Atri drew it out, a glowing cord and cast it into space. All was peaceful. Then he separated his mind slowly from hers. She scrambled away from him. She almost slapped him, until she searched her own memory and realised she had no pain left. No grief. No sadness. Just a pile of memories from which she felt utterly detached. Atri's open eyes were bloodshot. His hands were shaking.

'What did you do?' she found her voice. 'Did you just break into my mind? _What did you do_?'

'You saw me make the flower,' he said. 'It's just energy, Eli. Just frequencies of sound. I can move them wherever I want. I've seen everything that happened to you.'

'Get _out.'_

Atri considered defiance, but then he rose unsteadily. With a final backward glance he left her there.

'You know where to find me,' he said. 'If you need to talk.'

000

'Elizabeth?' David called.

His voice shook her from her thoughts. She was in the same position on her bed. She couldn't call up one ounce of her grief for Charlie, one moment of her anger or pain. She was _free. _Gratitude warred with fury._  
><em>

'Elizabeth, are you in there?'

Silence.

'Atri just left. I heard you crying.'

She raked her fingers through her hair.

'Come in,' she finally said.

The door swung open. His gaze travelled her body, flicked to the rumpled sheets. She was sweaty, her hair a wreck. Everything she'd taken pride in before, forgotten. She stood unaided, weak and thin. David caught her.

'Your...usual..destination is it?' he asked tactfully.

'Yeah. And right after that I want some breakfast. David.'

'I'll bring some up.'

'No. I'm coming downstairs. I want to see Sinashi.'

'He's at the centre.'

'Then I want to see _you_,' she gazed up at him. She pushed her hair back again. 'Jesus, David. I need a bath. I feel disgusting.'

He smiled behind her head. He turned his back while she used the loo and flicked the shower on. He fetched her a towel. When he came back she was naked, testing the water with her hand.

'I take it that whatever Atri did...helped?' he asked tactfully.

Shaw glanced at him, her dark eyes penetrating. She held fire on closing the stall. One side of her hair fell flat, wet.

'Did you have something to do with this, David?'

'Certainly not.'

She met his eyes, fearless, fierce once again.

'You're a shit liar. Anyone ever tell you that?'

'No ma'am. You're the first.'

He smiled as he bent for her discarded clothes.

'Welcome back to the land of the living, Dr Shaw.'

He pulled the door to and left her.

000

Shaw ate what David provided, not much caring what it was. It satisfied her hunger.

'David. Do you know what he did to me?'

David took her plate to the washer. 'No,' he said honestly.

'He broke into my mind. With his.'

'Oh? Did he. I imagine he felt that was the source of your illness. Rather like bandaging a broken arm. It didn't help?' he asked innocently.

'How is...twisted mind rape...helping me?' she turned to watch him.

He shrugged. _How very human. _

'Consider the alternative. The journey home would have been dangerous for you.'

Shaw's breath caught. He heard it. No human would have.

'You _bastard_.'

'I am?' he murmured. 'I had no idea. My Mother was conspicuously absent...if I even _had_ a childhood.'

'Don't play with me, David. You _never_ change.'

'I beg to differ,' he dried his hands and turned to her. 'I have changed. For the better, as I see it. I promised to keep you safe.'

Shaw fish-mouthed for a second.

'Do you think I'm an idiot, David?' her eyebrow arched. 'You thought you could leave Sinashi here and take me home, and I'd just go willingly.'

His eyebrows went up to join his hairline.

'I saw a lot while I was in Atri's mind,' she nodded slowly. 'More than you'd like. You're a twisted little _shit,_ David.'

'My God made me in his own image,' David smiled coolly.

Shaw slid off her stool and approached him, her eyes dangerous. He held his ground, fearless, blank.

'Are you being funny, David? I thought a sense of humour was stage one sentience?'

'Then perhaps I'm more alive than you think,' there was bite to his words.

'If you ever go behind my back again-'

'I will,' he promised her evenly. 'Don't look so surprised, Doctor. You don't always know what's best for you. Or Sinashi.'

'David, I order you to _back the fuck off._'

'Nice try,' he smiled. 'You never did take that look at my programming, Doctor. Would you like to? I'm certain you'll find it very...revealing.'

'Later.'

'Now,' he insisted.

He picked up his tablet, activated it and brought up the relevant code. He handed it to her. Shaw eyed him suspiciously. He left her be to read.

Shaw wasn't fluent in the three languages the developers had used to code his instincts, autonomic function and cognitive ability. She understood enough to get the gist though. She read until her stomach rumbled again. David put food in front of her silently. He disappeared into his study.

'Go tighten your nipple nuts,' she muttered, to the air.

She read back to front, then over again. When she knocked his door he was reading, feet up on a leather stool.

'What is_ that_?' she bent over to peer at the title.

'Wuthering heights, Doctor.'

He marked the page meticulously and set it aside. She handed his tablet over.

'So,' she said, her eyebrow arched. 'You're free. On Weyland's death. He freed you.'

'Yes, Doctor. What would be the point of making an artificial human...who isn't human at all?'

Shaw leaned her weight on the back of the sofa.

'I'm glad we're finally on the same page,' he swung his legs down.

'I don't believe you,' she said frankly. 'If you were free, you wouldn't still be here. I'm sure the Igogi would clamour for a researcher they can send into just about any environment. You could go anywhere...do anything.'

David stood up.

'Is that inferiority, Doctor? Do you consider yourself completely unlovable? I may be synthetic...but I still feel. And I appreciate sentimentality. I enjoy your company. I stay for that.'

'Someone did love me,' Shaw said quietly. 'Until you killed him.'

'I told you. I never meant to _kill_ Dr Holloway. I didn't know what the substance would do. I'll point out that it was Miss Vickers who pulled the trigger, in the end.'

Shaw's eyes filled with tears.

'But you that infected him.'

'I had no choice.'

His eyebrow arched sarcastically; 'Forgive me, Dr Shaw. I wanted to live.'

He left to fetch Sinashi from the centre. Shaw rubbed her arms, suddenly cold.

000

Sinashi ran up the garden path and threw his arms around her.

'You're up!' he bounced.

'Yeah,' she kissed his forehead. 'And I'm not going back to bed like that again. OK?'

Sinashi nodded.

'Let your Mother rest,' David helped her to the sofa.

She lay under a blanket and watched an Igogi soap opera. She still couldn't access the missing, dark part of her mind. She felt lonely without it. Incomplete and violated. And _peaceful._

In the weeks that followed, Atri stayed far from her. When he did come back he stuck to his work and passed few words with her. Shaw grew strong enough to walk about and make her own food. David acquired more free time as a result. He returned to his old routine. In time she joined him on the lawn.

'I promised you payback, David,' she hooked the end of his stick down with hers.

'So you did,' he agreed.

In six moves he forced her into the trees, knocked her stick clean from her hand and pinned her by the chest, his knee between hers.

'You're out of practise, Doctor.'

'Why do you still call me that?'

'It reminds me of...another life. Don't you think? You could be, you know. A Doctor again. You could be the scientist who takes the Igogi back to Earth.'

Shaw's eyes narrowed. He picked up her stick and threw it to her. She caught it.

'We're not going back to Earth, David. Not yet. Not until I have my answers. Anyway. What do I have to go back for?'

'Fame. Fortune.'

'You'll have to do better than_ that_ to get back to Weyland Industries.'

She stared at him.

'You've been recording everything...to send back to them.'

'Your suspicion borders on paranoia,' he said honestly. 'I was thinking more of your closure. Don't you want to share what you've learned? Humanity would benefit from it, I'm sure.'

She caught his elbow with a deft blow. He flinched. His eyes refocused, like a bird eyeing a meal. His lips twitched upward.

'Alright,' he said mildly.

He chased her towards the river, faster than she could counter. When she stumbled back into clean, clear air he waited for the splash.

'Very good, Elizabeth,' he bowed to her. 'But noone can fly. Not even me. Not even the new David 9 or 10, I imagine. If I go back I'll be simply...obsolete. And I have no desire to be discontinued. I have far too much to live for.'

She trod water, soaked, furious. She fished her stick out of the current and swam back to shore, scraped her hair back.

'Alright,' she said. 'You asked for it, David. No holds barred.'

'As you wish.'

Her wet clothes slowed her. Her weeks of isolation in bed had softened her. Her back wasn't so strong, she didn't have the same easy range of movement. She was as surprised as he when his back hit a white tree trunk and her stick came down, pointed at his nose.

'You let me win!' she accused.

'I didn't.'

His stuck blurred. She countered him just in time, stumbled back and found herself staring down the business end once again.

'I think our little hobby has saved us many arguments,' he said mildly. 'Having something to hit seems to keep you stable. I wonder if you have a latent violent tendency. Or at least, a streak of vengefulness?'

She panted.

'I _like_ our arguments, David. I like to _smack_ you.'

'Yes and that's exactly what I mean. Go ahead, Elizabeth. Hit me. If you can.'

She tried. In five moves, he smacked the back of her knees. She tumbled forward with a yell. He slid his stick under her chin. It lodged against her windpipe. He leaned down and smiled;

'That's too bad. I was hoping you might win this time.'

She conceded defeat, threw her stick down. He released her. His hands took over, tracing gently along her windpipe.

'I was hoping...perhaps...that in time we might forget the past,' he leaned his temple gently against the back of her head. 'I think we've become friends, in a strange way.'

Shaw closed her eyes, suddenly aroused.

'Imagine what we could achieve together.'

'You'd betray me the first chance you got, David.'

'I'm flattered by your faith in me, Elizabeth. Actually I'm smarter than that. You're a brave, powerful woman. I'd sooner stay on your good side.'

She squirmed.

'David-' she murmured._ Let go. Touch me again?_ She wasn't sure.

'I could be more than the role you give me,' he said, his fingers soft on her artery. He counted her pulse. It was rising. 'One day I can only hope you'll find it in yourself to forgive me my part in Dr Holloway's death.'

'Stop saying his name,' she breathed.

'I'm sorry, Doctor.'

She squeezed her eyes shut. David brushed her hair back gently and pressed a soft, dry kiss to the base of her neck. Her skin goosepimpled. He felt her heart rate surge and smiled softly. He slid a hand between her legs, let her wriggle and waited until she settled.

Shaw could hear Sinashi in the garden. Having one ear pricked for footsteps or voices just made it all the more dangerous. She nodded. David pinned her to a tree, his lips hot on her jugular.

'Elizabeth-' he sounded desperate.

'Please, David-' she whispered, urgent, tugging at his shirt. 'Off. _Now_.'

He obeyed. His smooth, synthetic skin was unmarked. She tugged her shirt off and grabbed him. He tugged her leggings down and buried his hand between her legs. He found her wet, desperate. Lifted once again he teased her with tender fingertips, her backside in his hands, his mouth on hers.

He slid home unexpectedly. Shaw arched, half way between pain and pleasure. She grabbed his hand and buried it roughly in her hair.

_'Hard_, David!' she whimpered.

He tightened his grip, tugged her head back, watched her eyes close and her mouth open.

'Yes-' she gasped, when he ground against her, her rippling, eager warmth pushing him toward easy cascade.

'God-' she choked, her legs wrapped tight. Her nails left marks that his nanites would have to work to mend later.

She moaned in his mouth, warm in his hands, so small he was sure he could break her. Her eyes lost their fury, she flushed, clung to him, let him fuck her. He thrust as deep as he could go, teased her with a slow exit and repeated. She leaned in for a kiss. He denied her, squeezed her hair, made her whimper his name.

Her face changed as she came. His eyelids flickered against her temple. Her body clamped down. His fingertips left dents in the trunk. Her hair was warm against his chest as he gasped and released.

She came back to him shaking, wet, helpless. He held her there until he slid from her body, then he set her gently back on her feet. She leaned her head on his shoulder. He kissed her temple.

'Father!' Sinashi yelled.

Shaw spun. Sinashi stood at the top of the path, almost on them.

'Shit!' she hissed.

Sinashi came running when he saw movement. It was David who stepped out casually, jacket perfect, his hair no more rumpled than ever. He caught Sinashi before he could round the tree and discover his Mother, her hair rumpled, fighting the leggings that hung off one foot.

'You were fighting again! When are you going to teach me?' Sinashi bounced.

'When you're older,' David spun him around and pointed to the house. 'I have gingerbread for later. Go on. I'll be along shortly.'

'What's gingerbread?'

'A biscuit,' David brushed soft fingertips over his head. 'Trust me, you'll like it.'

'Where's Mother?'

'In the river, Sinashi,' he blocked the boys line of sight with his body. 'Go on. Back to the house.'

He ran off. When he was out of earshot he disappeared behind the tree where Shaw was struggling with her shoes. He knelt and slipped them on for her.

'Nicely done,' she smirked.

'Thank you.'

'David...I meant to tell you. Atri came to me. He offered a gene therapy that would make Sinashi less human.'

There was a minute pause, a decision.

'I was under the impression it made him more Igogi.'

She stared at him blankly. Then her eyes went dark.

'How do you know that?'

His lips thinned.

'Answer me, David. I didn't tell you that-' she stopped, shook her head. 'No. You wouldn't. You _didn't.'_

'I'm afraid I did.'

'Whose DNA,' she grabbed him by his shirt. 'You piece of shit! What the fuck did you do!?'

David held his hands up, even as she smacked him against the tree he'd just taken her against.

'Calm down,' he said gently.

'How _could_ you...without telling me?'

'Atri came to me when you refused him,' he said simply. 'I didn't want to worry you. You were ill, Elizabeth.'

'I refused because I don't want him rewritten like a line of bloody code!'

David blinked slowly, non confrontational and infuriatingly powerful regardless. Shaw shoved him once and let him go. He righted himself calmly.

'Why the...bloody hell...did I ever trust you?'

'Deep down you know it's the only way to give him a normal life,' David said softly. 'You asked me to protect you both. I am.'

'You're no more human than the bloody toaster. You don't have any morals. You're dangerous. I can't believe I-' she backed away. 'I let you touch me.'

'Elizabeth!' his voice carried, but she was already gone, stalking back to the house.

000

David sipped from a tumbler. Atri nursed his own regrets with a traditional Igogi liqueur. David gazed at the holo, playing quietly. Lawrence of Arabia. As usual.

'I'm such a fucking idiot,' Atri mused. 'I should have asked her first. I should have..._told_ her.'

'Dr Shaw has never appreciated having her personal power taken away.'

'I didn't mean to hurt her.'

'Neither did I,' David turned to Atri. 'Sometimes, I think that Mr Weyland didn't give me very clear definitions for how I'm supposed to behave. Everything I do offends her senses.'

'Not everything,' Atri smirked.

'I'm a handy consort, that's all. For when her natural urges run high.'

Atri sighed. 'We're both in the dog-house, pal.'

David smiled sadly.

'I'm afraid I sealed my fate when I infected Dr Holloway.'

'We've all done things we regret in the line of duty, David. I never told you half of my past. Out in space...you have to trust your officers. If you don't, you die pretty quick. I'm making up for my own mistakes now. That's life. That's being human. Or Igogi.'

'It seems to desperately unfair,' David said softly. 'To make someone...like me...and not provide others. A family. A society. I've never minded being alone, until now.'

'Maybe your Mr Weyland meant to make you a family?'

'I doubt it. I was just a project...he'd soon have grown tired of me. Like he did of all the other Davids. I remember them. I found their programming stored on the company mainframe. I downloaded them. It probably wasn't the wisest thing I've ever done.'

'And?'

'There were seven versions of David before my...construction. Each one improved upon the last. And each time, Mr Weyland thought he'd pushed the proverbial envelope as far as he could. I soon realised that it was only a matter of time before I was replaced. So I sought to make myself invaluable.'

'And then he died. Now you're free, David. You'll always have a place with the Igogi. You're smart enough. We could train you up as a researcher easily enough. You can go places we can't. Bring back data and samples.'

'Thank you,' David smiled. 'But for now...my responsibility lies with Dr Shaw.'

Atri nodded.

'What are we going to do with her?' he asked.

'Well. In my experience, two things never fail to work on the Doctor. Baby animals and pity. I may have an idea. But it's going to hurt, I'm afraid.'

Atri snorted into his glass.

'Fine, pal. I bet you I've taken worse than anything you can deal out.'

'Don't be so sure,' David promised darkly.

* * *

><p>TBC...soon! :)<p> 


	8. Air

8. Air

Midday came and went and there was no sign of Sinashi. Shaw assumed he'd taken the long route home, across the fields and through the river. She put her bare feet up on the patio seat. David's tablet rested on her folded legs. Then the boy returned, leading an Igogi horse by its nose-ring. Shaw rapped the forcefield window. David was drying dishes.

'David!'

He glanced around. Pinpointed the source. He looked at her questioningly. She gestured._ Come_.

The horse was black with hooves the colour and texture of obsidian. They divided at the tip into five noches, the remnants of claws. His mane was wild and untrimmed. He had a chitinous beak and forward facing eyes. More wolf than equine. Sinashi waited on her judgement. His guilt was written in his body language.

'Tell me you're joking. Where the hell did you get him? Did you _fight_ for him?'

Sinashi avoided her eyes.

'I told you. _No_ more fighting!'

David leaned on the doorframe. There was something off about his posture even when he tried to be casual.

'I'm sorry, Mother,' Sinashi mumbled placatingly.

Glassy, icicle teeth flashed as the horse licked his nose with a crimson tongue. A chill crawled backwards up Shaw's spine. The beast was as tall as Sinashi at the withers. Broad like a cart horse. Big enough to trample him.

'You've got to take him back,' she approached warily. 'Look at the _size_ of him. He could bite your bloody hand off!'

'No,' Sinashi offered the horse his hand and it licked the salt from his palm. 'He won't, Mother. He's silly tame, I promise. I had a good look at him before I even entered the ring. He's never bitten anyone. I can't take him back now. Everyone will say I'm weak.'

Shaw searched his black eyes. They reminded her so much of another life, on a ship, far from safety.

'That's not the most important thing here!' she hissed.

Shaw glanced up. The horse turned his head to gaze at her. She'd expected brown eyes. They were matte crimson, predatory and intense.

'Shit,' she breathed. 'What the hell do you need a horse for anyway?'

Black ears swivelled, listening.

'I don't need him, Mother. I _want_ him. I _won _him_._ Fair and square.'

David took the horse by the ring for a closer examination.

'Exquisite,' David murmured. The horse bumped his jacket, snuffling about for treats. 'I can understand your fear, Doctor. His colouration is very unusual.'

'Isn't he beautiful, Father? He's a stallion, too. Only four. I can rent him for breeding. The black ones are in high demand.'

Shaw folded her arms.

'David. He isn't keeping it.'

David seemed reluctant to commit.

'They do have a rather unsavoury reputation. He reminds me of a book. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The headless horseman had a demon horse. It's eyes glowed like hot coals.'

David waved a hand lightly. The horse stretched out his neck. His tongue quested, almost a foot long.

'Most with red eyes are blind,' he said. 'This one isn't.'

He brushed his hand down the blank flank. It quivered. He touched the spot where jugular met shoulder. The horse folded himself down to lay in the dust and waited.

'Don't be an idiot, David!'

'It's perfectly safe, Doctor. He won't be interested in anything but rotten flesh. They use their teeth like needles to inject digestive juices which break down the carcass. The tongue is used to suction up the...pulp. They're simply the native cleanup brigade, like vultures.'

David climbed on easily and grasped the black mane in one hand. He shifted his weight forward and the horse hauled himself up. He adjusted his weight and flicked his tail, unphased. 'Unique,' David said softly. He stroked the broad, warm shoulders and smiled.

'David, watch him-' Shaw said warily. The horse bent to nibble at his ribs. David didn't move.

'It's merely an itch, Doctor.'

David eased the horse forward. He walked, turned and stopped with nothing but a tug of his mane.

'See? He doesn't even need the rein,' Sinashi said proudly. 'He's worth a lot. The boy who bet him had a knife. He thought he was faster than me. I took it off him in three moves and split his face in ten. Onyx is mine now.'

'Onyx. How apt,' David smiled. 'In this case, it might be best to let Sinashi keep him. Winning a prize like this is a mark of honour, Doctor. Besides. A reputable sale, even with the proper papers, would take time.'

David leaned down to put his cheek against the thick, rough mane and smiled. He could hear the huge heart thumping, feel the rush of blood at his fingertips. He listened.

'David,' she breathed. 'He'll break his neck on that thing.'

'I won't,' Sinashi said softly. 'I promise I'll take care of him. You won't need to lift a finger.'

David slid off the horse and landed with surprising grace on his feet. Shaw chewed her lip.

'What happens when the boy you won him off brings his Father up here looking for his horse?'

'He won't,' Sinashi said.

'Doctor. When a prize is offered in the ring, it is almost universally accepted that there is no legal comeback for goods lost.'

She sighed.

'I don't want you riding him where we can't see you. Ever. And if I don't see a helmet somewhere in this arrangement, you won't be riding him at all. Sinashi. I mean it.'

Sinashi nodded.

'Promise me. I'm going to be watching.'

Sinashi smirked at his feet. He offered her the rope. 'Do you want to try?'

'I'll keep my feet on the ground, thank you,' she said. 'For God sakes, _be careful_.'

000

Atri didn't turn up for work the next day. Sinashi noticed his absence. Calls to his apartment went unanswered. David took Sinashi outside to amuse him. The boy learned a new trick. Atri won his fights by muscle power alone. David was simply fast. He could see the minute ticks that betrayed a coming strike. He countered before Sinashi could move. Once, Sinashi's hand closed on the edge of David's jacket. It tore loudly.

'Sorry,' David said mildly. 'That doesn't count.'

Sinashi tried until he had to bend over, panting.

'Show me how you move so fast!'

'It's in artificial muscles I'm afraid,' David said. 'But I can show you how to surprise your enemy and soon you'll win yourself a house.'

'And a girl,' Sinashi smirked.

'House first,' David said reasonably. 'No girls until you're fourteen. That's the law.'

David knew something had changed. He wondered what would happen when Sinashi was up and grown. Would Elizabeth still live with him? Would he be alone?

Atri returned, black and blue, nose broken. There was a red smile cut into his right shoulderblade. The blood had run all the way to his waist and soaked his robe to the knee. He collapsed on the drive with a groan. Onyx found him there and began to lick the blood off his back. Sinashi followed the sound of his curious snuffling and tugged the horse back. Between them, David and Sinashi managed to carry him inside. Shaw found him sprawled on the cushions.

'Oh my God! Where did you find him?'

Sinashi pressed down. 'He just walked right up the drive, Mother. He must have been in a fight.'

'Is _this_ how you got that horse?!' Shaw asked suddenly.

'No! I promise. I fought for Onyx. It's just that the boy who bet him was stupid. I got lucky.'

'Don't downplay your talents,' David said mildly, as he flicked the hand-held scanner on and rolled the Igogi man over. 'You have a skill for hand to hand combat.'

'David, don't encourage him!' Shaw said.

'Sinashi understands this culture because he was born to it, Doctor. You need to accept that he'll be fighting until the day he dies.'

'David,' Shaw glared at him. 'I don't want to talk about this._ Again_. We're never going to agree.'

David read the results back, his hands steady, attention anywhere but on their age old argument.

'Three fractured ribs, a minor haemmorhage in the abdominal wall, a broken wrist. A nasty cut. A concussion. He's a mess. I suggest you get some dinner, Elizabeth, and settle in. This will take some time.'

'Fine. Call me as soon as he wakes up.'

David only nodded. He waited until she and Sinashi were gone. He mended the broken ribs with the laser. Once the muscle wall was fixed together he disconnected Atri from the portable oxygen and waited. It took a while. The Igogi opened his eyes and grimaced.

'A bit excessive, don't you think?' David asked mildly.

'Get me a drink, for fuck sake,' Atri loosened the metal belt that held his skirt up and sighed in relief when it came loose. 'And I don't mean water.'

'Certainly.'

David waited at the synthesiser. Atri investigated the scar on his shoulder with hesitant fingertips. He sat up to drink, his back aching.

'I take it you found a pair of Igogi hands willing to...bruise? Or was it a real fight?'

'My Brother,' Atri said simply. 'He's won everything he owns in the ring. Knows how to use his fists.'

David smiled.

'Try to look sick.'

'No problem there,' Atri lay back down. 'I feel like shit.'

'That's the spirit.'

Shaw brought Sinashi up with her.

'Lad,' Atri reached for his pupil, tugged him down, kissed his temple.

'Who was it?' Sinashi searched his face. 'Tell me a name. I'll kill him.'

'You won't,' Atri said evenly. 'You take one step outside and _I'll_ kill _you_. Leave it be. It's over now.'

'But-'

Atri grabbed his forearm.

'You do what I tell you, boy. You hear?'

A nod.

'Good. Now,' he held up his glass. 'Can I get another one of these?'

'Go on,' Shaw pushed Sinashi to the synthesiser. 'Atri. I'm so sorry. If we'd known, we'd have come for you-'

'I'm glad you didn't. You'd be dead,' he smiled and reached for her hand. 'You going to call me a pod then? I need a bath and a week of sleep.'

'No,' she shook her head. 'You're joking. You're not going home like this.'

Atri smiled lopsidedly.

'Perhaps you could carry me to the bathroom,' he grinned.

Shaw bit her lip.

'I might manage your arm,' she said mildly. 'But I'm sure David can manage more.'

'You're so easy to tease,' he murmured.

Shaw hid her flush behind her hair.

'Did you win, lad?' Atri said, as he took the glass off Sinashi.

'What?' Shaw glanced between them.

'The horse.'

A nod. David listened, silent.

'How do you know about his horse?' Shaw probed.

'Who do you think tipped him off?' Atri said mildly. 'You really think I'd let him go into the ring without any backup?'

Shaw leaned in, irritated.

'You'd better tell me exactly what happened, Atri. And _you_,' she pointed at her son. 'You too. Or bad things are going to follow. Trust me.'

'Mother,' Sinashi cut across his teacher. 'It's not like it sounds. The boy who bet his horse...Atri just...gave him a little nudge in the right direction, that's all.'

'I told him Sinashi was arrogant...and slow. Two things he definitely isn't.'

'Why?' Shaw asked.

Sinashi was conspicuously silent.

'Because he needs to _win_,' Atri said. 'The more he wins, the more honour he has. The more honour he has, the better his life will be. Unless he's lucky enough to get a job, he'll be fighting for everything he has. That's the way it works here.'

'I'm going to get a job,' Sinashi put in suddenly. 'I want to be a pilot.'

Atri gazed at him steadily, a full minute before he spoke.

'You've got to be tall to be a pilot. And strong, too. As big as I am. Those ships don't come easy. There's tests for everything. Heart, mind, body. You've got to be tough, lad.'

'I can pass them. I won a horse. I can do anything I want.'

'Self belief,' Atri smirked. 'If only they could bottle it.'

000

Motes of dust settled gently in the late afternoon sun. Shaw sat cross legged by Atri, who watched the distant leaves rustle through transparent walls. David had taken Sinashi for his lessons and she was alone, watching the Igogi breathe.

'I thought of you,' he murmured suddenly.

Shaw's breath caught.

'What?'

'Of your family.'

'You're not going to tell me who did this. Are you?'

Atri managed a quirky smile.

'No. I'm not. You're going to stay here and stay safe. I don't want you involved.'

Shaw sighed softly through her nose, frustrated.

'That's...ridiculous! We need to sort this out.'

'I started the fight,' Atri said evenly.

'Then you're a bloody idiot,' she nodded.

He snorted but it faded fast into pain.

'Did you put him in danger, Atri? I don't want a lie. You want me to trust you. You need to give me reason to.'

Atri shook his head.

'I wouldn't hurt that boy. He's everything to me.'

Shaw nodded slowly.

'You've poured years of time and effort into him. Why?'

Atri folded his huge hands on his belly and regarded her steadily. It felt like he was looking through her skin.

'I loved Sinashi from the first day. He has gentleness. You rarely find that in Igogi boys. I should know. He gets it from you. Once day he'll carry that compassion out to the universe and do us all proud.'

'So it's altriusm,' she nodded. He sensed her doubt.

'Yes,' he said. 'It's because I admire his innocence. Does that shock you so much? You think every Igogi man is a rapist or a murderer?'

Shaw didn't answer.

'I'm not,' he bit. 'I've tried telling you. Tried _showing_ you. You're never going to get it into your head are you?'

Shaw pushed her hair back.

'I don't know what to believe.'

'Believe I love you,' he said softly.

Shaw swallowed hard, nervous. Atri sighed softly.

'What are you going to do when Sinashi is grown up, Doctor?'

'You sound like David.'

'You going to hang around the Observatory, hiding from the past, refusing any suggestion of a future? You could have a future here with us.'

'I just want my answers,' Shaw said finally. 'Why you made us. Why you tried to kill us.'

'You have a virulent lack of imagination, woman.'

'I'll take that as a compliment.'

'It isn't,' he said honestly. 'You should listen to me sometimes. You might learn something.'

Atri leaned over before she had chance to speak again. Shaw froze. His face was so close.

'I can show you places where your answers don't matter any more than the questions that spawned them. You'll forget humanity even exists. I'll take you through the stargates, and _blow your mind_ with Igogi science.'

He reached up and tucked her hair back gently.

'Only a stage three sentient can pilot a Sphere. I know how. Do you want to know who made the Igogi?'

'Yes,' she breathed suddenly, curious, hungry.

'If you'll trust me, I'll show you.'

'And the cost?' she asked, her dark eyes calculating. 'When you have us out in space?'

'Nothing,' he hissed. 'I just want to see you _gasp_, Eli. All I've ever wanted is to make you happy.'

He leaned a bit closer, his fingertips warm on her throat.

'I'll take you to meet Ishhi-Addu. You'll need your brains, your wit, your serpents tongue. He isn't easily impressed. Do you think you can talk your way to Gods feet?'

'You're making fun of me,' she accused.

'I'm not,' he promised. 'Come on, Doctor. Leave the comfort zone for once. Bring David. Bring Sinashi, if you want. I'll keep you all safe.'

Shaw glanced at his lips. It was a mistake. He kissed her softly, warm and damp.

'You weren't made to sit at home and vegetate,' he murmured. 'You were made to go further than _anyone_ else.'

Atri smiled. Shaw stood up. She didn't trust her shaking hands, her cycling mind. She heard the thump of hooves at Sinashi's horse leapt a fallen tree. She locked herself in her room.

000

David bent over Atri with a hand-held medi scanner, checking that his ribs had fused properly.

'David,' Atri's peircing blue eyes flicked up to meet his. 'I kissed her.'

'Ah,' David nodded. 'That explains your elevated heart rate, and your blood pressure. Are you nervous...about telling me?'

'Of course I am.'

'Why, may I ask?'

'If she consents-' Atri smiled lopsidedly. 'You know what I want, David.'

'Do you take me for a human?' David asked mildly.

'I know you love her.'

'So do_ you_,' David countered. 'I wasn't given the same...restrictions as humans.'

Atri nodded slowly.

'Are you sure?'

'Perhaps I can suggest something guaranteed to get her attention?'

'And what's that?'

'Operation jealousy,' David smirked.

'I almost feel bad for deceiving her.'

'Almost,' David nodded. 'But not quite.'

'Alls fair in love and war, pal.'

'So I hear,' David agreed mildly.

000

The house was dark. Sinashi had gone to a sleepover. Shaw assumed that meant sleeping in a tent, lighting his farts and telling ghost stories. She was curled on the settee, watching Lawrence of Arabia yet again. David sat straight-backed at her feet. Atri leaned on the sofa. Shaw had eaten the smorgasbord David had laid on. Now she was pleasantly full, and sleepy.

David followed the actors silently, his impression flawless.

'David,' she breathed suddenly. 'What the bloody hell are you doing?'

David had leaned his perfect blonde head on the Igogi's shoulder. Atri rubbed his hip idly. They cuddled up like lovers ages old.

'I'm enjoying a cuddle, Doctor. Would you like something to drink?'

Shaw fish-mouthed. She shook her head, looked resolutely at the screen. Then a movement caught her eye. David was kissing Atri.

'Oh my God.'

'My apologies, Doctor,' David said gently. 'I'm afraid I found a file called Inhibitions. I decided to open it. I found some very interesting...information in there. It aroused my curiosity. So to speak.'

'You're...gay?'

'No. You're very welcome to join us.'

'You're joking,' her gaze slid sideways. 'David. Have you gone mad?'

He said nothing. He turned his attention back to Atri, who planted a warm, slow kiss on his lips. Shaw fidgeted, distantly aroused. Atri's warm white hands slipped under David's shirt, exposing flesh that Shaw knew all too well from her own explorations. Her skin sensitized. Her insides ached pleasantly.

'Are you trying to make me jealous? You want to hurt me, is that it?'

'I'm not trying to hurt you, Doctor.'

'I'm not watching this,' she breathed.

Shaw stood up. David caught her by the wrist before she could escape. He was too strong to fight.

'Let go,' she hissed.

'No,' David shook his head.

'Let go, David!'

'You had no arguments last time, when we were alone. When you begged me to fuck you against the tree,' he brought his face close, teeth white, eyes hungry. 'Don't you want to do it again?'

Shaw tried to push him but he didn't let go.

'No,' she lied.

'Don't lie to me,' he hissed, his eyes bright. 'I can smell the truth. I saw it in your eyes on board the Prometheus. I may be synthetic, Doctor, but I'm not stupid. When I dragged you in from the storm, you looked at me and _wondered_.'

Shaw bit her lip. She avoided his gaze.

'I was an idiot.'

'You're human. Curiosity is natural. I _want_ you to be curious. I want to make you happy.'

'I thought you couldn't want.'

'I lied.'

He let go. Shaw backed away.

'Elizabeth. Don't walk away because you're scared. Please.'

Shaw hesitated. David offered his hand.

'I'm an idiot,' she cracked. Tears escaped. She swallowed them back. Her face twisted. 'A complete bloody fool. I thought you loved me-'

He grabbed her by the arms. His fingers were iron. His eyes sparked.

'I do!'

Shaw shook her head.

'I don't believe you.'

'You won't let me in,' his teeth were white. 'If you did, you'd see it's not a lie. Your body betrayed you long ago,' his gaze slid to Atri. 'You want him.'

'No, I don't!'

'Don't lie to me,' his voice dropped into a warning.

He released her slowly.

'You think you love me,' he said softly. 'I'm just familiar, Doctor. I'm all that's left from the Prometheus. I gave you strength when you needed it. It's an unnatural attraction. I'll never be enough for you.'

'You're...a bloody idiot!' she shook her head. 'I can't believe you'd say this to me!'

'It's the truth, Doctor. I was only ever a means to an end.'

'What end?'

'Your sanity.'

Shaw shook her head.

'Sinashi is my sanity. David. It's insecurity, that's all. You just learned how to doubt your own worth!'

He frowned, soft and curious.

'Insecurity?' he murmured.

'Yes!'

He searched her eyes.

'I don't think I _can_ feel insecure.'

Atri passed them by on his way to the door. He shut it softly behind him. David licked his lips nervously.

'Maybe we've been working off the wrong song-sheets, all this time. Doctor.'

'_Somebody_ has,' she grabbed him quick and pulled him down.

Her hands went to work on his jacket.

'I thought you were angry with me,' he murmured, as she tugged his shirt off. She didn't answer. She pushed him back, towards the cushions. She left a trail of clothes behind her, tossing one shoe then the other behind her. He smiled when her skin hit his.

'Women are confusing.'

'Shut up, David,' she tugged his pyjama bottoms off. 'Right. Now.'

'Yes ma'am.'

'And keep calling me that,' she murmured. 'It's _nice_.'

'That's a rather contradictory instruction-' he trailed into a whisper as she guided him into her body.

She arched her back happily, finding a rhythm she liked. He gripped her hips, pleasure signals racing. His skin goosepimpled. She ground against him, one hand on his belly, the other on his collarbones.

'Do you like it, David? When I call the shots?'

'Yes ma'am.'

'Maybe I should use you. You can be my dildo,' her eyebrow arched playfully. 'After you were so cruel to me. I think you deserve that.'

He smiled.

'You might have trouble there,' he said softly, his fingers suddenly strong. 'The tables can turn so easily, Doctor.'

'Are you going to fuck me properly, this time?'

His eyebrow arched.

'Because if you're not up to it, I'll just keep going like this.'

He grabbed her by her hair, tugged her head back just how she liked it. She gasped, throat exposed.

'Good,' his teeth grazed her jugular.

He sat up suddenly. He was too strong to resist. He adjusted his position so she couldn't keep more than the tip of his erection inside her. He smirked.

'David!' she whined.

He buried his hands in her hair and tilted her head back.

'How novel,' he breathed, hot on her neck. 'Being wanted. I don't recall a single instance before you..when anyone wanted me.'

'I want you!' she gripped his shoulders. _'Please,_ David!'

'In fact,' he went on calmly, as though he were reading the paper out loud for Mr Weyland, or reporting the findings of some predictable experiment. 'I'm sure you were the only one...who treated me like a man.'

Shaw chewed her lip. He bit her, hard enough to bruise.

_'Please_-' she keened, her hand in his hair.

He pulled her down sharply, buried himself as deep as he could. He'd mapped every inch of her body. Every mole, every quirk. He knew the angle to hit to make her come. The speed she liked, the time it took. Her heart thumped. Her blood thrummed in her veins. He relished the fact he'd done this to her. He fucked her until she tightened, her body teasing with involuntary little spasms. He waited. He knew her breath, her pupils, so intimately she'd have been shocked to know it. She flushed from her face to her breasts. Suddenly she grew stronger, so strong she could pull him in and hold him. Her dark eyes settled on his, her mouth fell open – and her eyes went black. She closed them and rolled her head back.

He held her there, hands on her back where the little tattoo of the butterfly was. She relaxed against him, panting.

'Better, ma'am?' he teased.

'Oh God-' she wrapped her arms around his neck. 'Don't stop,' she gasped.

She tried to hold onto him but her fingers were weak, her backbone soft. He buried his nose in her neck and for a minute, he teased her supersensitive body with shallow little thrusts that grew erratic, like his breathing. His fingers tightened on her skull. She watched him, fascinated, until he gasped and seized. When it was over and he opened his eyes. She pushed him down and collapsed happily on top of him.

'Can you breathe?' she whispered.

He stroked a lazy hand up and down her spine.

'Yes.'

She murmured his name softly against his chest. Her breathing evened out. He gazed at the ceiling. Wondered where Atri had gone. He mused for some time on the improbability of his own position, and dozed into inhuman dreams.

000

In a garden, surrounded by rustling red leaves, a bent old man sat on a wooden seat that had been manifested from void by one of his students. The boy was only sixteen, and already he was pushing stage three sentience. Ishhi-Addu would have been proud, but he saw such things as pride as mere distractions. One of the women from the shelter came to him, her head bound with a scarf the colour of sunset. Her skin was wrinkled with age but she was still beautiful. She handed him a message.

'Stay,' he smiled at her.

She bowed indulgently and said;

'You know very well I can't. My son is waiting for me at home.'

'Shame,' Ishhi grinned, his thick lips damp where he'd licked them. 'I should like to know you better.'

'Maybe one day,' she smiled. 'But I'll send you my maid, if you fancy her company.'

'How old is she?'

'Six centuries.'

'A babe,' he smirked. 'No. I was after you. Not your maid. Go on then, run for the hills. This is from an old student of mine. He was once the brightest I had. Now that title has been taken by your son. You should be very proud.'

'I am,' she said.

Ishhi smiled harmlessly.

'Reply to my letter, will you? Tell Atri that I will see him on the Eighth of the month. Tell him also that if he brings me one of his unique...pet projects...be it animal, mineral or vegetable-'

'You will have relations with it,' the woman folded her arms, her eye-ridge raised in amusement. Ishhi chuckled.

'You know me too well my dear. Go on.'

She bowed again and was gone, leaving him to bury his gnarled old toes in the gravel. He gazed at the brilliant white sky. A bird fluttered by, colourful wings beating faster than his eyes could witness. He wished again for flight. It was the only thing he'd never done.

* * *

><p>TBC. Let me know what you think ;)<p> 


	9. Flight

9. Flight

She was so warm with David curled around her. His knees were tucked behind hers, his arm over her waist. She could feel the soft hairs on his forearm. She could feel him breathing, warm moisture in her hair. The stars were scattered overhead like the aftermath of a jewellers accident.

'David,' she murmured. 'Did Mr Weyland believe in God?'

He was quiet so long she wondered if he'd drifted off.

'I _think _he did. He spoke about God at great length. He found the subject...fascinating.'

'Do you believe?'

He could see the details of each strand of her hair, even in the dark. _I believe in a creator,_ he thought. _The man who gave me hair and eyes and skin. I don't know._

'I think there may be too much of the scientist in me to believe anything blindly.'

Shaw smiled playfully against his bicep.

'Do you think...that because a man made you...you don't have a God? A God like mine?'

'How can I?'

'David. If God made Weyland, and Weyland made you...that makes his God your Grandfather.'

David stared, stunned.

'I think...I'd be a somewhat biased researcher if I explained every discovery based on a preconception of intelligent design. On the other hand...if I did, by chance, discover that intelligent design is the reason behind life...I'd be happy to re-evaluate.'

Shaw laughed and wriggled until she faced him.

'You're a funny little robot,' she smiled. 'And an odd little man. What about love? Did Mr Weyland give you that?'

He nodded. 'If he hadn't, I'd have been a lot harder to control. Humans prefer to deal in equations they feel they know the answers to. Why program me with alien responses, when human ones will do just as well? It may surprise you to know that I'm fairly predictable, Elizabeth. Once you understand which directive comes _first_.'

'What do you love?' she whispered.

'Children. Flowers. The stars. Beautiful people. Symmetry. Asymmetry. Difference. Faces. Industry. Discovery.'

Shaw put her head on his chest. Her hair tickled his throat.

'I'm not supposed to fall in love with you, David.'

He licked his lips nervously.

'Because I'm a robot. You know...you could just say that. It'd be more polite.'

'It isn't that.'

He blinked slowly in the darkness. She couldn't see the tears threatening in his eyes.

'I didn't intend to hurt Dr Holloway. I was simply following orders. Most humans would do anything to save their own life. I'm not sure why you expect any different from me.'

Shaw shut her eyes tightly.

'Is your distress down to love...or lack of love, Doctor?'

Shaw hid her face in his shoulder.

'You're crying,' he murmured.

She made a noise.

'I suppose...it's too much to hope that they're happy tears?'

'Confused ones.'

'Ah.'

Silence.

'Stay,' she whispered, thickly, when the silence had gone on too long to be comfortable. '_Please._ David.'

'I don't know where you think I'd go. But yes. Of course.'

'With _me_,' she clarified.

'You and Sinashi are my responsibility-'

'_Not _for that reason!' she breathed. 'Do you understand me, David?'

It took him a minute to run through every possible explanation. Then he nodded, stunned, his grip suddenly very posessive.

'Yes. I believe I understand you perfectly.'

000

Atri returned and nothing was said about their experience in the living room. Shaw procrastinated until it was both impolite and foolish to continue. She found him weeding, his back damp with sweat.

'Can I talk to you?' she arched an eyebrow. 'In private?'

'Alright,' he didn't sound enthused.

He followed her into the greenhouse. It was uncomfortably hot, but private.

'It's good to have you back,' she said quietly. 'I just wanted to say I'm sorry, for what I said. I don't know how it stands between you and David, but can we at least try to be friends?'

Atri considered that. He folded his arms.

'I've been your friend for a decade. I'm not sure that's ever been enough for me. I want more. And you know it.'

'I know,' she nodded. 'It's not going to work, Atri. Even if David was OK with it.._.I'm_ not.'

Atri pointed to her face.

'Your mouth says one thing while your eyes say another. I'm not going to make this easy for you. You deserve the truth. And so do I.'

Shaw smiled tightly.

'Great,' she muttered.

'I don't get angry very often,' he murmured. 'Watching you lie to me makes me angry.'

'I think you assume a lot,' her patience broke.

He smiled, without a lot of warmth.

'This isn't going to happen,' she said simply.

She turned for the door. He grabbed her wrist.

'Let go!' she said, sharply.

'No. I've seen what you're hiding, and I'd be a fucking idiot to let you go now.'

Shaw moved closer, her eyes dark and fearless.

'You have no idea what I'm hiding,' she said evenly.

'I've been in your mind.'

The blinked dumbly. For a full minute she stared at his face, trying to discern the truth. Then she managed a shaky;

'_What?'_

'When I took the sickness out of you.'

'You read my mind?' she tugged her hand away sharply. He let go. 'Oh my_ God_.'

'Eli-' he started, as she slammed the door behind her and ran for the house.

'Don't run from me!' he yelled, at her back. 'Don't you _dare!_'

David caught Shaw by the elbows but she pushed past him and kept running.

Atri turned on his heel, his eyes full of tears. An arc of light split the air and he walked into it. For a second he was a shadow against the sun, then the rip closed and he was gone. David stared from the patio. He searched his databanks for any precedent and came back completely blank. His optical sensors were functioning normally, not even a single error.

'Interesting,' he set his glass down and went to poke around at the scorch marks.

000

A full year passed. Nobody heard a word from Atri. Sinashi often asked after him and Shaw wanted to tell him something positive. She couldn't find a lie in her heart, but neither did she have definitive answer so in the end, she told him only what they knew for certain. Atri had left, and nobody knew when he was coming back. Sinashi grew angry. He sprouted up half a foot and became the teenager Shaw had been dreading. He packed on muscle in line with an appetite like a wolf.

His fights were no longer playful. The local boys battled like starving dogs, neither willing to give until blood flowed. Sinashi was as savage as any of them, but his real power came from his intelligence. He was cunning and often vindictive. David's attitude to this was one of mild acceptance, which was a point of view that Shaw struggled to match. She found it increasingly difficult to contend with Sinashi's violent streak. He was tempered only by the tenderness he'd inherited from her. If it made his Mother cry, Sinashi would stop.

Shaw and David both wished Atri would return if only to lend Sinashi some direction.

Sinashi grew less eager to be cuddled. He spent more time in the towns. One weekend he arranged to lend Onyx to a farmer for breeding. He rode a full day and half a night and when he came back, he was older. Shaw couldn't put her finger on exactly what had changed, only that Sinashi held himself differently. His underconfidence was gone. He was the man she'd imagined he'd be, one day in the distant future. Not now. Right now it was a terrible shock.

He'd grown up overnight.

In time Shaw began to grieve for Atri. Sinashi often came back from the towns bruised, sometimes bleeding. His first acquisition was a crate of odd birds. Shaw thought they looked like naked chickens. Their feathers were made of thin, semi-translucent skin. They clucked and wandered around the garden and began to lay odd, putried-looking green eggs that actually tasted better than chicken eggs back home.

Then he won a cow, which he sold. He came home with new clothes. Shaw laughed when she saw him. He scowled at her and asked her what was funny. When she said he reminded her of Atri in his new robe, he swiped away the evidence of tears and turned away from her. She caught him by the crook of his arm. It was thicker with muscle than her thigh.

He was two heads taller than she, and Shaw was certain that she was now the only person, aside from David, who could restrain or praise him.

'I'm so sorry, Sinashi,' she tugged him close and wrapped her arms around him. 'I haven't heard from him since the day he left.'

'He left because he loved _you.'_

'He never said so,' she edged around the truth, responsibility burning under her breastbone.

'You didn't love him back.'

'Sinashi, I never wanted him to leave. It's too complicated to explain to you.'

'I _need_ him,' Sinashi breathed. 'He'd know what to do. What to study first. I have to pass, or-'

'You will. I'm so proud of you, Sinashi.'

He smiled grimly.

'When I'm gone...will you take care of Onyx? I don't want to uproot him. Maybe Father would keep him-'

'Yes,' Shaw nodded quickly. 'When you come home he'll be waiting for you. I promise.'

He wrapped her in a hug.

000

The river ran unusually cold. The Observatory managed to remain warm enough to be comfortable to Shaw, but the plants that grew on Anatak were mainly tropical sorts, with little tolerance for the cold of space. Everything died and the Igogi scientists went about in double layers, shivering and complaining about the freeze. A decrease in solar activity was blamed and generators were shipped in to rectify the problem. Sinashi carved a silhouette against the flowing river, practising the series of movements he'd need to win every battle from here to flight school. He buried the end of his stick in the dirt. There was a sudden, subliminal pop. He turned. Atri leaned against a tree.

'You,' Sinashi breathed.

He grabbed his stick from the dirt.

'Bastard!' Sinashi smacked Atri in the jaw. His skull thumped back into the trunk. Sinashi pointed the stick at Atri's heart.

'I never meant to hurt you, lad,' Atri clutched his face, panting. 'I'm sorry.'

Respect shone in Atri's eyes. He made no move to defend himself.

'But you _did!_' Sinashi's jaw clicked forward, threatening. His shoulders tightened. He drove the stick into Atri's belly, a parting shot, but it passed clean through him and hit the wood. Sinashi stared at the empty spot. A twig snapped behind him. He spun, stick ready. Atri stood there. Sinashi swayed, his expression dissolved into confusion.

'Are you a dream?' he asked quietly.

'No, lad.'

Sinashi poked Atri in the shoulder. He was solid.

'You...moved. Somehow.'

'It's called dematerialisation,' Atri spread his hands helplessly. 'I can't explain it in any way you'd understand. Yet. Things have changed. I'm not what I was...but I'm still Atri. OK?'

'You're a ghost?'

'No. I'm alive. Just...changed.'

'Why did you leave us?' Sinashi asked. 'How can you come back here now...after that? You betrayed us all!'

'I'm sorry, lad. I was heartsick. For your Mother. You don't know what it feels like. I went to find an old friend. He taught an old dog a few new tricks...and sent me back. Just before he died.'

'I'm sorry,' Sinashi said.

'How's your Mother?'

'Worried,' Sinashi confessed. 'About me. I've got to pass the exams for flight school. She thinks I'm being reckless with my life, and I probably am. But I don't care. It's something I have to do.'

Atri glanced at the house. The garden was empty. He'd hoped for a glimpse of her. He swallowed his disappointment.

'You've got to promise me something, lad. No matter what you see, you don't tell your Mother I'm here. Not yet.'

'She'd want to know,' Sinashi said uncomfortably.

'I know,' Atri nodded. 'But I don't want her to. Not yet. Don't tell her, and I'll teach you everything you need to know, to get that job you want so badly. OK?'

000

Sinashi lied to his Mother. He rode Onyx down to the riverbank every day, leaving hoofprints in the clay. Atri was waiting there, most often sitting barefoot, on a log crusted with moss. There were two sticks on his lap. He leaned over them casually.

'You haven't been home,' Sinashi said simply. 'I checked the logs on your apartment door.'

'And how did you manage that? Atri looked a bit worried.

Sinashi slid off his horse and landed in the mud.

'I know a bit more about technology than I used to. Where did you sleep last night?'

Atri shrugged.

'I slept in my new house.'

Sinashi smiled.

'Oh,' he said. 'Can I come see it?'

'Only if you promise not to tell your Mother about it.'

Sinashi sighed softly.

'I don't like lying to her.'

'Might be best you don't come see it then.'

Atri stood up and tossed him one of the sticks. Sinashi caught it.

'Best three out of five, lad. I hope you're up to this. I'm faster than I used to be.'

000

Sinashi tugged his Mother to one side a week before he was due to leave. He pointed to the forest beyond the river.

'Atri's back,' he said softly. 'He made me swear not to tell you. So I'm breaking a vow but you need to know.'

'Sinashi...are you serious?'

'I swear it. He's got a Sphere. I've seen it. It's like a living bubble. I've seen him pass through things...put his hands inside trees. He's like a ghost who can become solid.'

'And how long have you been taking his private tuition?' David asked suddenly.

Sinashi spun. David was standing behind them, wearing a knowing smile.

'I'm afraid that when I saw the rather...extensive...bruising you were sustaining almost daily, I put two and two together.'

'No,' Sinashi stared at him. 'I don't believe even you could have guessed that. Did you watch us?'

David shifted his weight.

'What do you think?'

Sinashi nodded suddenly.

'It's exactly what I'd expect you to do.'

'I'm afraid my primary directive...is still the protection and preservation of life. For you...and your Mother. At any cost.'

'Who decides who you protect? Weyland? Earth?' Sinashi asked suspiciously.

'At first, Mr Weyland. Then...upon his death, I took the liberty of extracting certain passwords from the data storage brought on board the Leviathan. Backups. Of the Prometheus' systems. They contained the necessary markers, and a handy How-To file that I used to simply...reprogram myself. I believe Mr Weyland would be very proud. And very confused. I've become my own God.'

'What would have happened...if you hadn't?' Sinashi asked.

'The answer to that doesn't bear thinking about,' David admitted.

Shaw waited until Sinashi was gone. Then she turned to David.

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'I was under the impression that you'd already made your feelings clear.'

'David,' she shook her head. 'You know my bloody feelings! Why didn't you tell me!'

'Atri doesnt want to be found, Doctor.'

'Did you talk to him?'

'No.'

'But you saw him.'

'Yes.'

Shaw sat down and leaned her head on her head.

'We shouldn't have done that. He was worth more as a friend.'

'I remember it differently, Doctor. It wasn't a friendship he wanted, in the end. Neither did you, for that matter.'

'David-'

'Does the truth offend you, Elizabeth?'

'It does what you say it like _that_.'

'Sorry,' he said. He didn't sound contrite. 'If he does come back...I'd be interested to see this Sphere. It seems strange that he'd stick around. When a Stage Four Sentient could go almost anywhere-'

'A what?'

'A Stage Four Sentient, Doctor. It was merely a hypothesis until a few weeks ago, when I overheard their first conversation. I believe that Atri had found a way to alter his frequency. If I'm correct...he could conceivably be capable of...almost anything.'

'What does that mean?'

'Oh, he could walk on water. Turn water to wine. It's mere science, Doctor, don't look so shocked. There's a theory that whole universes may exist within states of higher vibration. I found a paper some time ago that detailed a vehicle. It has no literal translation, except for perhaps "Sphere." It's an intelligent engine, built from the genetic material of the Sentient, plus a few bits and pieces from rarer, more far-flung places. It grows to be part of the body, rather like the Igogi spacesuits. It's composition is quite remarkable. It can be used two ways, to alter the state of matter inside it, or to alter what's outside, to within a certain distance. I expect we have a great deal to learn from Atri now.'

'David,' Shaw said suddenly. 'Are you telling me that Atri has become some sort of.._.God?'_

'No,' David said mildly. 'There is a word for it, but again, there's no simple translation. It happens very rarely, usually only to the oldest Igogi. Many die, during the process. Ascension.'

'Do you think these...Sphere's ever came to Earth?'

David sat back.

'It's certainly possible,' he agreed. 'I'd be more inclined to believe that a Sentient posed as Jesus Christ, than a man was able to walk on water.'

'How is it you always seem to know what I'm thinking?'

'Practise, Doctor,' he smiled. 'What do you want to do? If we search for him, it's quite possible we'll only drive him away.'

'I'm not going to chase him down,' Shaw said. 'David. Do you think he left...because of me?'

'Certainly he did.'

Shaw bit her lip.

'It's no secret you loved him.'

'What about you?' she countered. '_You're_ the one that kissed him! I didn't have anything to do with that.'

'I loved _you_,' David said casually. 'That was enough.'

'What?' she watched him walk away. 'David! Don't walk away from me,' she grabbed his arm. 'You did that for me?'

'Almost everything I've done since we came here..is for you. Haven't you figured that out yet?'

'You can't do that to him, to make me happy.'

'I already did.'

'David, you don't get it! Atri doesn't deserve to be manipulated. That's what you're doing. You're playing with his heart.'

'I thought that was your job, Doctor,' he pulled his arm free.

000

The morning Sinashi was due to depart by hoverpod for flight school, Shaw was in pieces in a way she'd never anticipated. Nothing could have prepared her for the wrench in her heart when he climbed into the pod and she realised he was actually leaving.

Then a familiar presence arrived behind her. She knew him by the weight of his attention, she didn't need to turn and look. Atri passed them by. Sinashi left his bags on the seat and came to receive the bear hug Atri offered. His eyes were full of tears. Atri gripped the back of Sinashi's neck.

'Don't look at me like it's the last time, lad. You get good, do it_ fast_, and come home next chance you get. We'll be waiting for you.'

Sinashi watched them as the pod closed. Shaw flinched, reaching for him involuntarily as it turned a corner and disappeared. David caught her hand, then her waist, and pulled her in before she could crumple. She buried her face in his neck. So many years of history stored in the smell of his skin, his hair, the taste of his mouth. Her knees turned to jelly. By the time her backside hit the kerb, Atri had turned to stare at her.

'Elizabeth-' David brushed her hair out of her eyes tenderly. 'It won't be forever.'

'I know,' she whispered.

'He'll be back.'

'I know!' she sobbed.

'Don't be upset,' David whispered to her. 'I won't be leaving.'

'I _know,_' she held him tighter. '_God_, David.'

Atri gazed at her, his attention heavy, his odd blue eyes a shade lighter, or was that just the sunlight? Shaw wasn't certain.

'Atri. I'm so sorry. What now? I suppose you're leaving again, now that Sinashi's gone?'

'I considered it. I suppose it depends on what I have to stay for.'

'You've been teaching him all this time.'

'Yes.'

Shaw found her feet.

'What I said to you that day came out all wrong. I just meant that I couldn't deal with both of you. It was like being torn between you...I didn't know what to do.'

'You could have said yes,' Atri said simply. 'Then it wouldn't have been so complicated. You could have been honest with yourself.'

Shaw swallowed hard.

'God, you're still an asshole.'

'Good,' he nodded numbly. 'At least I know I'm still myself.'

'I missed you,' she whispered.

'Does this mean I get a hug?' Atri smiled lopsidedly.

She nodded, her throat tight with tears.

'Yeah. Sure.'

He was broader than she could get her arms around, all muscle. He enfolded her in white strength and the unique smell of his skin. It was all Atri, and it was all she wanted. Her heart was confused, but that didn't stop her from squeezing him, grateful to see him again. His eyelids flickered against her temple. She remembered landing in his lap in the pond, soaked and irritated. She'd not seen the truth for looking.

She found his eyes were open. Stuck like a pinned butterfly._ Eternal._ She forgot to breathe. Atri kissed her softly on the mouth, and waited for the inevitable rejection. It never came. Shaw marvelled at his eyes, like two perfect blue gems. The second kiss wasn't so innocent. It lasted until she tingled, until her fingers tightened on his muscles, until David murmured;

_'Finally!'_

He sat down.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?' Atri looked over her shoulder.

'I'm enjoying a well deserved rest,' David said. 'Pretend I'm not here.'

'No,' Atri shook his head. He pointed to a spot right in front of him. 'Here, boy.'

David's eyebrow went up. He didn't move.

'Are you sure?' he said softly. 'I was under the impression that Dr Shaw is uncomfortable with the more...atypical relationship templates.'

'David-' Shaw reached for him compulsively. His clear eyes clouded with something disturbingly close to need. He twitched.

'She can decide that later. For now, I just want a fucking hug.'

000

David made three drinks with the same, chilly, perfect precision that Shaw knew from the Prometheus. With fingers that seemed to know the length, breadth and depth of each item within reach, graceful, an artistic expression of perfection. David was everything Weyland had wanted to be. Youthful. Innocent. Immortal.

_Mine,_ Shaw thought. He's _mine_. That powerful feeling brought her to the kitchen counter where he was placing ice into the glasses, one cube at a time, with a pair of silver tongs. Shaw wrapped her arms around his belly, her hands on his perfect abs. She sighed into his spine.

'Is everything OK, Elizabeth?'

'Yes,' she whispered. 'Everything's fine. David. I just want to touch you.'

'Are you distressed? About Atri's return?'

She nodded.

'Ah.'

He sounded disappointed.

'That _isn't_ why I want to touch you,' she murmured quickly.

David put down the tongs and placed his hand on top of hers.

'Perhaps you want to touch me...for the same reason I like to touch you? Familiarity. Comfort,' he turned around to face her and gathered her into a warm, intimate cuddle.

'Love,' she said softly.

'Yes,' he breathed into her hair softly. 'Love would be an...appropriate description. I wasn't sure if I could feel it. At first.'

'And now?'

'I'm certain that I can.'

His shirt was warm, smooth, freshly laundered against her face.

They spent the evening polishing off the alcohol David kept for special occasions under the kitchen counter, where Sinashi wouldn't find it. Shaw stuck close to David, and neither he nor Atri instigated more than a brush of hands, or a squeeze to say goodnight. Shaw was glad of that because although she had given Atri a cuddle that lasted much longer than normal, she was hardly willing to repeat the uncomfortable feelings from before, when they'd tried to persuade her into a complex, three-way relationship. The kiss went comfortably unmentioned, for now.

Atri caught her on the bottom step, before she could catch up with David. By now he'd be turning the bedcovers down, setting her glass of water meticulously on her side, unmisting the walls so that they could lay together under the stars, naked limbs entangled. Shaw had never liked sleeping naked, until she met David.

'I wish I hadn't spent a year thinking. But the year bought me a gift, one I'd like to share with you, if you'll let me?'

'What sort of gift?' Shaw asked him quietly.

'I promised to take you to Ishhi-Addu. He's dead now. Before he passed, I convinced him of your purpose. He gave me the means to take you to meet your maker. Do you still want to?'

'Yes,' she breathed. She searched his face. 'Of course.'

'It's a long journey. A month around trip. If you'll trust me. You and David.'

Shaw stepped closer.

'Yes,' she nodded.

'Good,' Atri smiled. He let her go. 'We'll leave when we're fully supplied. Best wait until Sinashi writes. Wouldn't want to panic the boy.'

Shaw slid into bed in the dark, her nightdress a crumpled, silken puddle by the bed. David received her, his arm, smooth arms so familiar that she knew them by the texture of muscle, skin and vein. She kissed his chin affectionately. He wasn't asleep. He smiled.

'David?' If we had the chance to answer those questions, about who made us, about who we are. Would you still want to go?'

'I take it Atraharsis has offered his Sphere-'

'You're a smart little robot, aren't you?'

'I have very good hearing,' he smirked.

'So?' she prompted.

David's arms tightened imperceptibly.

'I want to go wherever you go, Doctor.'

Shaw gripped him.

'Good. Because I'm not going anywhere without you.'

David caught her lips, hungry and urgent. She almost forgot he wasn't human, and never could be. What mattered more now was how he behaved, his choices, his consistency of character. She kissed him back until they were moving together, driven by instinct and something that passed for instinct. He flipped her onto her back and held her there to tease her. Before she could start to beg, he drove his body into hers until she yelled, arching, pleading.

'Did I hurt you?'

'No, David!' she gasped, as she squirmed to get him closer, deeper, again and again.

'Good,' was all he said, until it was all over, and she was sticky with whatever fluid he produced in place of semen, and sweaty, and satisfied.

'I...love you,' he breathed.

She blinked at him.

'What did you say?'

'I said I love you, Doctor,' his eyes were bright, reflective in the dark. He smiled that odd, tight little smile he favoured whenever he was busy thinking deeply about something. 'Elizabeth,' he added.

'Jesus,' she buried herself in him, as close as she could get without taking off his skin to wrap around them like a blanket. The words tripped off her tongue so naturally she wondered why it had taken so long, what had held her back. Hesitation seemed nonsensical now, with so much feeling at stake.

'I love you, too,' she said. 'David,' the bit at the end nearly broke her in two, but for the fact he was smiling.

* * *

><p>TBC ...Almost at the end now.<p> 


	10. Dust

**A/N - Ok, folks. Bear with me. I originally intended to finish this story very differently to how it's currently going. The ending was written before I posted the first chapter...but then as I kept writing it began to take a new turn all on its own and that ending became unworkable. For a long time, certain aspects (like Shaw and Atri's relationship) just weren't talking to me and I didn't want to force them until it was time. That might be set to change soon. I don't know how much longer the story will go on for - I'm going to keep writing until it wraps up naturally. The story had grown as I've been writing it, so the synopsis has changed a bit too. I hope those of you who are still with me like the changes. Let me know what you think.**

* * *

><p><span>10 - Dust<span>

Shaw remembered the first time she'd seen the Leviathan's holographic navigation systems. Afterwards, she often dreamed about going places that nobody else had been, like the first human explorers. Maybe there were still far-flung planets where the native lifeforms had barely conceived of humanoid intelligence.

Shimmering dust orbited a central core of blinding white light, forming a holographic sphere. Suspended on magnetic streams that danced and arced like plasma, a giant control chair waited for Atri. It was translucent like everything else in here.

'Your mouth's wide open!' she grabbed David excitedly.

He blinked in mute shock.

'Does this thing actually fly?' she asked Atri.

'Of course it does!' Atri smirked.

'How?' David smiled, enthralled. 'I've never seen anything quite like this.'

'I could tell you,' Atri conceded playfully. 'But it might melt your circuits. You willing to take the risk, mate?'

David cut him a look. Shaw stifled a laugh.

'Yes,' David nodded seriously. 'I am.'

'Fine,' Atri smiled. He reached across the shimmering, semi-reflective space for his chair. It blinked out of existence and appeared at their feet. Shaw took a swift step back. Atri reappeared, sitting in the control streams, twenty feet above. He wasn't moving his hands like the pilot they'd met on the Dragon. The streams separated, forming six from one and attached to his head and shoulders.

'What's he doing?' Shaw breathed.

David shook his head.

'I believe he can fly with...his mind.'

'How?'

David shrugged lightly.

'I don't know, Doctor.'

The floor began to vibrate. Shaw grabbed David. At first it was nothing but a soft thrum, then the control streams brightened and suddenly the ground was gone. She was staring down at empty space, star-strewn and beautiful. There wasn't enough air. She felt empty and cold inside, the vibration still echoed in her bones.

'Jesus!'

'It's OK, Doctor,' he tightened his grip on her arm.

'You'll get used to it,' Atri called down, amused.

The stars chased one after the next, speeding up until they flowed like shimmering a river. Shaw tore her attention away. She felt too close to space, too close to cold darkness. Atri adhered one stream to the next, like pins on a map. They held. The autopilot took control and the few streams that remained on his skin looped into his chair. Atri sat forwards.

'You can faint now,' he grinned lopsidedly.

He appeared a few feet away, not a scrap of movement in his clothes or body.

'Will you_ stop_ doing that?' Shaw asked. 'It's bloody _weird_!'

'Sorry,' he smiled. 'It's still a novelty. Do you want to try it with me?' he held out a hand.

'No,' she said quickly. 'I'll keep my feet on the...ground. Whatever _that_ is. Atri...how thick are the walls?'

He grinned. 'You're going to have to trust me. The ship wont let you down.'

'You sound pretty sure,' she teased.

'I've been using it for years.'

Shaw calculated that. She watched him suspiciously.

'You were only gone a year-'

'I'd say Atri knows something he hasn't told us. About time,' David said mildly.

Shaw saw the sense in that.

'How long? she asked.

Atri shrugged, amused.

'I lost count. I went far outside of this universe, where time runs differently. Hell. In places, it goes backwards. When I got back...the chronograph read about a thousand years.'

'But you look the same! How come you didn't age?'

'It wasn't linear time,' Atri smiled.

'Doctor!' David distracted her. He pointed through the far wall. 'There! That's a wormhole!'

'But they're pure theory!' Shaw turned to Atri. 'You're not taking us in there. Are you?'

Atri laughed.

'We're going to the far side of the universe. Even if I maxed out the engines...we could travel at four hundred times the speed of light and you'd still be long dead by the time you reached Xisuthros. This is the fastest way.'

Shaw grinned.

'Atri. I want to see the science. I _need_ to see it! Will you show me? This is just...amazing!'

000

The rotating, flexible walls of the wormhole shimmered with the light of distant galaxies but the second Shaw focused on them, they were gone, merging into a constant stream of light. She felt like Alice in the rabbit hole. She began to see that in the aftermath of her adventure, she'd lost her muchness. She resolved to get it back. Standing on empty air with her hands pressed the soft, transparent walls, she felt sick and scared, and exhilirated.

'This is amazing!' she breathed.

David came to stand behind her. He took her wrists and guided her arms out to each side. He smiled over her shoulder;

'I'm King of the world.'

Shaw laughed and twisted to gaze at him.

'Kiss me, Jack!' she teased.

'Certainly.'

When he pulled away the joke in her eyes was gone. There was only desire. He kissed her again, more softly, until she melted into his chest and sighed. He wrapped his arms around her waist and watched the universe whip by. Her breath was hot on his cheek.

000

Shaw figured out the onboard synthesiser. She couldn't quite escape the feeling that she was eating holographic sandwiches and drinking hot chocolate made of light. Still, the food filled a very physical gap. In an adjoining room (though she was still trying to factor out how square rooms could exist at all, within a Sphere) she found a double bed.

'You're going to go and memorise everything, aren't you,' she teased David on the first night.

'Yes,' his eyes were intense, full of life and intelligence. He left her to sleep.

David had always kept an even sleep pattern on the Observatory, but she was beginning to see it was all for her benefit. He sat with Atri for most of the night, and when the Igogi went to rest, David remained awake, reading. Shaw woke early and went to poke about. David smiled at her from the chair.

'Curious, Doctor?'

'Yes,' she nodded. 'David. I was thinking, last night. I spent so much time just worrying about Sinashi, locked away in the house. I was terrified we'd be sent home if I put even a foot wrong.'

'You had priorities,' David said mildly.

She nodded. 'I didn't realise a Mother's instinct was so strong. David. Show me_ everything._ Please. I want to see it all.'

'Certainly,' he nodded.

He came to the ground with the chair and tugged her into his lap.

'From start...to finish,' he said, as he pressed her hand to the holo display. 'Like this.'

000

On the third day, in the middle of the night, David shook her out of a light doze.

'Elizabeth!' he helped her up. 'You need to see this. It's beautiful.'

'What is it, David?'

'Aliens,' he whispered.

She followed him to the control deck. A holographic scan of a giant, rod-shaped ship was hovering over a table made of light. It had two flat ends, about sixty miles long was keeping pace with them. Its hull glowed white-hot. Atri stuck stream to stream around the table, peering into the innards of the odd craft. Tiny lifesigns glowed there, four hundred and sixty seven in total.

'They came right out of the Western stargate,' Atri said. 'We're passing over the entrance now, hence the turbulence. The gravitational fields are immense, they pull the wormhole closer and cause ruptures. They must have seen us...and decided to investigate.'

Atri zoomed in on one of the aliens. It was about five feet tall, with six oval shaped eyes and a small mouth. Its odd, wing-like structures were extended to touch the wings of those closest. They shared information telepathically, like a hive mind.

'It's very rare to find them in this density,' Atri said.

'Density?' she questioned.

'All matter has vibration,' Atri said. 'They belong about three octaves of vibration...higher than we are.'

'Can we talk to them?'

'It's possible,' Atri hailed them on a subspace frequency that wouldn't break up in the wormhole.

Shaw waited, her fingers hooked around the edge of the holo projector table.

'Shit,' Atri laughed, 'Get ready!'

The Sphere shook subliminally. A single wavering figure materialised, setting off a proximity alarm that Atri silenced instantly. Her huge red eyes were a sharp contrast against textured octopus skin. Her folded wings were like dragonfly skin, as long as her body. She was naked. She wavered, shifting in and out of materialisation. Then she spread her odd wings and images began to flash across her body, textures and thoughts, memories and language. She blinked all six of her eyes and turned to stare at them. For a split second, Shaw saw her life play like a movie, flickering faster and faster, until she saw her own reflection.

'Oh my God!' Shaw smiled. 'What is she?'

Atri silenced her with a gesture. The odd, textured face turned toward David. He gazed back in calm, clear curiosity. Then the alien disappeared, data shining on her body.

Shaw burst out laughing.

'Shit!' she exclaimed.

'That,' Atri grinned, and pulled her closer, 'Was a spore. A scientist. She's left us with a little note,' he pulled it up.

The onboard translater pored over it for a few seconds, and translated it.

**THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION. YOUR GENOME AND MEMORIES HAVE BEEN RECORDED FOR RESEEDING AT A LATER TIME.**

Shaw raked her hands through her hair.

'Jesus. Have you ever seen one before?' she asked Atri.

'Yes,' he nodded. 'That's why she didn't scan me.'

'I don't suppose she left her genome, did she?' Shaw looked hopeful.

Atri grinned.

'As a matter of fact, she did.'

000

Shaw bent over the electron microscope that Atri kept in a small, onboard laboratory. It was made entirely of light. Peering into the tiniest details was like coming home. She found David in the control chair the next morning. She hadn't been to bed.

'You've got to see this, David!' she called up.

He appeared at her feet. She sat on his knee and handed him a clear projector style slide, about the size of a sheet of printer paper.

'Have you ever seen anything so amazing?'

David read it, his eyes skimming to and fro, his photographic memory recording.

'That is very unusual,' he nodded.

'She's closer to the genome of a lizard, than a human. David. We have to get more time out here. To study this. I want to take it back to Earth.'

He smiled.

'Well,' he said. 'As it happens, that's become possible. This ship could reach Earth in two days, from Anatak.'

'How come it can go so fast?'

'It uses a form of subspace propulsion...and within a certain radius...it appears to be able to fold space. it jumps,' he demonstrated with his hands. 'Like a frog, hopping from one point to the next. I doubt Atri would be happy to let you take his technology to Earth.'

Shaw bit her lip.

'David. You do record everything. Don't you?'

He gazed at her fondly. She could almost see the cogs turning.

'Yes,' he murmured.

'Weyland Industries would want you back. And probably me, too.'

'Perhaps,' David conceded. 'I found a route, pre-programmed into this ship. I thought it might be of interest to you,' he brought it up in miniature.  
>It was a direct path to Earth.<p>

'David...do you think he means to take us home?'

'Yes. I believe he does. But I think...it may be a surprise. A gift, of sorts. I wouldn't mention it, if I were you.'

000

Atri brought a bottle of something sweet, yellow and alcoholic to their table. It tasted like lemons. Atri poured three glasses and handed one to Shaw.

'Is being drunk in charge of a Sphere a crime?' she grinned.

Atri shook his head.

'Noone to police it out here. Half the sentients who travel like this are immune to alcohol anyway. But _you're_ not,' he winked.

Shaw couldn't resist a slightly flirty smile.

'You trying to get me drunk, Atri?'

He smirked. 'I just like to watch you _sleep_.'

'Are you saying I'm a lightweight?'

Atri nodded playfully.

'You'll be under the holo table first, Doctor. Or I'll eat my own hair.'

'You haven't got any hair!' she laughed.

'I know!'

Shaw kept up for about the first seven drinks. After that she began to slur and wobble until at last she dozed off with her head in David's lap. He carried her to bed and covered her up. While Atri slept, passed out on the pillows, David studied. The next morning, the Sphere emerged from the wormhole on the far side of space.

The ship woke Atri with an automated injection in the backside. He made an unhappy noise as he came round, his hangover clearing quickly. David was still in the chair, his hair alive with static from the control streams. His eyes moved rapidly, like the to and fro of REM sleep. He was reading at inhuman speed.

'We're here,' David announced. He called up a star map and Atri checked their position. 'That ship belongs to Xisuthros.'

'And how do you know that?' Atri humoured him.

David zoomed in.

'Because he already said good morning. We're due an audience in two hours. Somebody had better wake up Dr Shaw.'

Atri smirked.

'You're a quick study, aren't you?'

'Very,' David smiled.

Atri took a syringe out of a set of drawers in the wall. David materialised at his feet. He smoothed his frazzled hair down.

'Shall we?' David smiled.

'Mmm,' Atri nodded. 'This will be fun.'

Shaw was still in the same position David had left her, on her belly, drooling. Atri let the syringe go. It floated towards her backside and stuck in her flesh. She woke up with an irritated little noise and opened eyes like piss-holes in the snow. Atri snorted his amusement as she plucked it out and tossed it at him angrily.

'You bastard! What the _hell_ was that?'

Atri pocketed it with a grin.

'Just a little wakeup call,' he said.

'Breakfast in bed would have been more like it,' she grouched.

'Breakfast is waiting. On the sofa,' David informed her mildly. 'Time to get up, Doctor. We've arrived.'

000

Xisuthros' ship was oblong and much larger than the Sphere. It had a narrow end and a broad end like an egg. The narrow end folded open to admit them. Once they were inside, control streams ruptured out of vents in the walls to hold the Sphere steady. Shaw was sober by the time they walked down the transparent ramp. It took a few seconds for the ambient light to come up. The egg was a multi-storey in every direction, a hundred different rooms of weird dimensions stretching onward into oblivion. Enough to upset her already dicky stomach. Nothing was solid here, every wall was a play of semi-transparent light. The surfaces gave of a mild glow wherever they were touched. There was nothing living here. No plants or insects, no sense of an onboard ecosystem. It was sterile – but warm. So warm that she took her jacket off as they walked toward the single, robed figure that waited.

'You bring an under-sentient humanoid and a synthetic man. I have to say I was hoping for more than your pets, Atraharsis.'

The man was old. Shaw placed him somewhere between eighty and ninety, though he held himself like he was much younger. Was it pride, or strength, she wondered?

'What is this?' Xisuthros gestured to her. His feet were bare. He peered down at Shaw. 'Does it speak?'

'Yes,' Shaw said, in perfect Igogi. 'It does.'

'A sense of irony,' Xisuthros nodded. 'Well that's a good start, I suppose. Come with me. You are all going through decontamination. You're almost certainly carrying_ something_.'

He lead them down a ridgy, shimmering, wormhole corridor past weird, almost-visible rooms on either side. He brought them to an open space, about the size of the loading bay on board Prometheus.

'Stay_ there,_' he said.

Shaw obeyed. A white laser grid shot out of the walls and scanned her clothes. They turned to ash which was sucked away into the vents in an upward flurry. She closed her eyes. She didn't want to see their host naked. The laser tingled as it mapped her skin, fat, muscle and bone.

'Cancerous cells present in zones A, C, H,' said a computer. 'Request permssion to terminate.'

'You might as well,' Xisuthros said tiredly. 'Restore the genome while you're at it. Perhaps it will boost her intelligence.'

Shaw's belly tingled, then the right side of her chest and finally, deep inside her head, something fizzled and died. She bent over, panting.

'Doctor-' David caught her.

'What's he doing to me!?'

'Giving you back a few years,' Xisuthros said evenly. 'It's not like it matters. Your lives are so transient, compared to ours.'

Then living oil emerged from the floor and rose to cover her nudity. It slithered up her skin like a thousand unholy slugs, bonded to her DNA. She shuddered in disgust. When she looked down, she was covered ankles to wrists to neck in a living black slick.

'You may command it,' Xisuthros said. His own morphed into the grey robe he'd been wearing before.

Atri smirked.

'That might be asking a bit much of them,' he said, as his own reduced to the familiar pleated robe, waist to ankles.

'Mmm,' was all Xisuthros said, unhappily.

Shaw found her balance.

'David-' she laid a hand on her belly.

'It's alright, Doctor.'

She nodded, to comfort herself. She had the feeling something deep had been changed. Atri spread a hand across her back and her suit morphed into a flight suit.

'How the hell do you do that?'

'Later,' he murmured.

Shaw spun when David changed colour.

'David?' she stared at him. 'Where the bloody hell did you learn to do that!'

He smiled. She knew the blue-grey trousers and blazer ensemble like she knew the back of his hands. It felt like stepping back into the past. Even the Weyland logo was perfect. He smoothed his hair.

'Do you like it, Doctor? I have fond memories of these clothes.'

Shaw followed their group out of the decontamination chamber and into the control room. Silvery creatures, smooth and humanoid like miniature, muscular Igogi went about.

'Pay them no mind,' Xisuthros said. 'They're automatons. This is a research vessel, first and foremost. You came here for a purpose. I think. I wonder if you realise the danger inherent in the questions you wish to ask?'

'What do you mean?' Shaw asked.

'I mean that knowledge is not always power, Doctor. Sometimes...knowledge can be a burden.'

Xisuthros called a chair to him. He sat down.

'How would you like to proceed? With a head full of knowledge...or in innocence, as your race is meant to be at this early stage of development?'

'If you think so little of us...why did you even let us come here?'

'Igogi and humans share a few things in common. Curiosity, for one. I wanted to see what you've built,' he glanced at David. 'And what you haven't.'

Xisuthros searched her eyes as though he was looking for a soul. 'Don't misunderstand me. I don't have a particular animosity toward mankind. I find them as fascinating as any other primitive species. I do take exception to the arrogance I find, whenever I receive a new transmission from their mass media. This idea that they can match God for skill and precision offends my senses. But I'm an old scientist now, and I know very well that you can't judge one by the standards of the many. So. Are you _one_, or are you_ the many_?'

'Why don't you decide?' Shaw said.

'You're intelligent,' Xisuthros conceded. 'I see you trying to outthink me. If you manage it, do let me know.'

'I will.'

'What do you want to ask me?'

'Why,' Shaw said instantly. 'Why did you make us?'

'You're certain you want that answer?'

She nodded.

'You are simply one permutation from a possible outcome of billions. I did not control how the genetic material reconsituted. Do you have faith, in a higher, creative power, Dr Shaw?'

'Yes,' she nodded. 'I do.'

'Interesting. So do I. But I believe because I've seen the ghost in the code. Genetic permutation that could not possibly have been contrived, or conceived of before the seeding. Attempts to recreate these in the lab invariably fail. Something, some _imprint_ that we don't understand, influences how the seedings progress. We are just mere men, inside the eye of God.'

Shaw stepped closer.

'Sometimes you get it wrong,' she said softly. 'LV-223. You went too far.'

'I told you, Doctor. Infinite permutations. You have a ridumentary understanding of it. You call it Murphy's Law.'

'Anything that can happen, will happen,' Shaw murmured. 'Does that give you the right to wipe out a whole species?'

Xisuthros smiled. He would have been a hansome man in his youth. 'I simply press the button. The black virus you found on LV-223 deconstructs and remakes. It was designed to isolate the ghost in the code, and bring it forward. How do you think we did?'

'You're telling me...that this ghost in the code, this wildcard in the DNA you've been experimenting with...you wanted that? You wanted to _breed_ it?'

'Of course,' Xisuthros nodded. 'It was the logical progression. Out of chaos, comes order. And our wildcard plunges order back into chaos. It's the cycle of life and death, Doctor. You will never escape it.'

'Why?' Shaw breathed. 'All those _lives_...you were going to destroy families. _Children!'_

'What comes after..._those_ are children. You were only ever a _stage of evolution_, a temporary measure, an experiment designed to fail.'

'Why?' she whispered.

'Because you weren't perfect.'

Shaw's throat was tight, her mouth dry and thick. She held back her tears.

'What is perfection?!'

Xisuthros stood.

'Come with me.'

She followed, nearly blinded by tears. At a bend of the corridor, Xisuthros stopped and activated a window. It unmisted to reveal a room. Shaw gasped, her skin cold, the back of her neck tingling. Inside, the creatures had spun resin constructions out of their metallic saliva. They nested in the crooks and crannies, their whiplash tails like reels of hose, deadly, shiny black. She stepped away, hand over her face.

'Oh my God.'

Xisuthros brought up a holo display that showed the aliens physiology in perfect detail.

'We have seeded the black dragons from here to the far reaches of the universe. Within six generations they return to this form, no matter what genetic material they're exposed to. They are perfection. The final step.'

Shaw was shaking. David grabbed her.

'You're going to turn them loose...everywhere. On Earth,' she whispered.

'Death is but a step to the final frontier, Doctor,' Xisuthros said. 'Unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Your fear of death holds you back from attainment. In a few thousand years, the universe will be clean again, and then we can reseed it.'

'You bastard,' Shaw breathed. 'You brought forth all this death...and you sit there and expect us to just accept it?'

'I don't expect anything of you Doctor,' Xisuthros said. 'Except that you will die.'

Shaw shook her head. She backed away.

'David. We're leaving.'

Half way down the ramp that lead back to the docking bay, David and Atri caught up with her.

'We have to warn them. I doubt even the Igogi know what he's planning. And there as eight billion people on Earth...who're going to die if we don't help them.'

David followed her into the Sphere.

'Those things-' Atri said. 'The dragons. I've seen them before, when I was in service. I didn't know they'd bred them like this. He can't mean to release them.'

'He does,' Shaw said. 'Because we aren't _perfect._ How long until _you're_ not perfect either?' she turned to gaze at Atri. 'Are you going to help us?'

'Why wouldn't I?'

Shaw smiled tightly.

'Because of me. Because of how I've treated you.'

'Forget that,' Atri said. 'I knew you were sick in the head the day I met you. It never bothered me. I don't see any harm in taking a message back to your world. If not for your sake...then for Sinashi's. Those monsters should never be let loose.'

'Thank you,' Shaw whispered.

'Thank me when we're away.'

'Is he going to let us leave? He knows we'll go straight to Earth.'

She gripped the back of their sofa as the ship's engines cycled up and began to shake the transparent floor. The control streams broke away and Atri floated into free space. A second later they were speeding away, a trail behind them. The silver egg grew smaller and smaller.

'Are we free?' she asked.

'That ship could outrun us, easily. But I don't think he's going to try. I don't think he cares enough.'

'Just get us as far away as you can, as fast as you can. I don't want to take the chance.'

'Eli,' Atri leaned down at her set the ship to autopilot, back to the wormhole. 'If he wanted to kill us, we'd already be dead.'

000

David pressed a button on the console. Shaw gaped as memories from his landing on Anatak Observatory, his first year, then every year thereafter began to play. Every shred of evidence they'd accumulated over their stay was laid bare, all contained within David's memory. He'd recorded everything. Even the aliens in their resin room. He gazed at Shaw.

'David...'

'Protection and preservation of life,' he murmured. 'At _any_ cost. I transmitted the data back to Earth an hour ago, on a secure frequency.'

David turned to Atri.

'I appreciate that you won't want to be implicated, so I used a secure coding. You won't be involved.'

'Oh god, you're a bloody genius!' she threw her arms around him. He smiled into her neck.

Atri leaned over.

'Don't get ideas,' he said evenly. 'If you think war with the Igogi is a good idea. It isn't. Defense is your best option now. Defence against the dragons, and containment technology that I can teach you. If you start an interstellar war...we might as well hand the dragons our heads on a platter.'

000

Disappointment gnawed at her, and anger fuelled the fire. David found her sitting on the edge of their bed, her head in her hands. He laid fresh towels down behind her and sat down.

'You're upset, Doctor,' he murmured.

'Of course I'm bloody upset!'

'I hardly think you have anything to be upset about. After all...you discovered the truth of LV-223. The truth of the seeding project. You'll save many, many lives.'

David ran a gentle finger over the back of her hand.

'David, how can I promise him there won't be a war? I mean...the second Earth get hold of this information...they'll want to wipe the Igogi out.'

'We'll tell them where their resources would be better spent. On the dragons.'

She nodded.

'What makes you think they'll listen?'

David shook his head.

'I can't make you any promises.'

She sighed.

'Jesus, David. I wanted...more from him. I wanted to hear that they loved us. Somehow. How fucking naive is that?'

'One amoral Igogi's wet dream of absolute power will never detract from what you've become. Beautiful,' he leaned in to put his temple against her fondly. 'Unique. Intelligent.'

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in him.

_'Perfect,_' he finished, a hand in her hair.

'Oh, David-' she choked. She kissed him. She pulled away quickly, her fingers in his clothes. 'I need to ask you something. And I really,_ really_ don't want to hear the answer. I don't want to hurt you.'

His eyebrows went up.

'Of course.'

000

Shaw found her courage, and her heart. She approached Atri, who was synthesising himself a smoothie.

'Eli,' he smiled when he saw her.

'Can I get one of those?'

'Sure,' he amended it to two.

'I need to...tell you something. Coming out here has really cleared my head. I know that probably sounds crazy...but I think I've finally found the perspective I was missing. For such a long time I was so wrapped up in Sinashi. So scared he wouldn't make it...or that someone'd just swoop in and snatch him away.'

'I know.'

'I...stopped myself. When I should have been more...adventurous. I really fucked things up with you. I know I did.'

Atri handed her the drink silently.

'I wish I'd done things differently.'

'Which bits?' He sipped his drink.

Shaw smiled nervously.

'I think you know which bits. I...had a talk to David.'

'And he's more accomodating than you thought.'

'Yeah,' she smiled a bit uncomfortably. 'I think...I humanised him too much.'

'So, what?' Atri smiled. Hope began to creep into his expression. 'You've changed your mind. Is that it?'

Shaw thought about it.

'Yeah,' she nodded. 'Life...should be there for the taking. I've let fourteen years of mine slip by. And I don't want to waste another minute.'

* * *

><p>TBC<p> 


	11. Grounded

11. Grounded

A river of stars whipped under her feet at a million miles a minute. Distant nebulas refracted kaleidoscopic colours that projected around the tunnel wall. The wormhole had begun to bend. In the last hour the curve had grown more pronounced.

'Eli?'

She jumped. Atri was so quiet on his feet.

'Sorry,' he murmured. 'You alright up here?'

He folded his arms and leaned on the hull, fearless.

'You know,' he pointed out mischievously, '_Technically,_ Sinashi is probably safer than you are right now.'

Shaw avoided the subject.

'There's a gravitational field out there. It's a supermassive wormhole.'

Atri smirked, amusement clear.

'It's the Northgate,' he said. 'It's a magnitude seven.'

He crossed to the table to peer at the scan.

'Wandering range of a few hundred thousand miles. It's due to shut down again in...six hours and forty three minutes.'

'Where does it lead?' Shaw joined him.

'Into another universe,' Atri shrugged. 'Another density of matter. To you I guess it'd just look like bright light.'

Shaw sighed.

'There's a whole bloody universe out here and I haven't got a single photo-'

Atri laughed.

She'd been thinking about Earth lately. It didn't really feel like home anymore. She still had a responsibility to her own kind though, especially now.

'Doctor,' David said suddenly. 'A visitor. They've just scanned us.'

'What sort of visitor?'

David pressed a squishy button and pointed to the table.

'The Igogi sort.'

It was a huge flat disc, better known as a Sprinter. It was an intergalactic craft, big enough to block their view of the stars.

'That's a warship,' Shaw said quickly. She could see the canon bays. 'Bloody hell.'

Then a single light began to flash on the desk and suddenly the transparent screen flickered up, bearing a familiar face. Ninurta leaned on her desk. Her head was bound with a midnight blue silk, her face decorated with intricate, temporary tattoos.

'Hello again, Dr Shaw. David. Atraharsis. Cut your engines, we're towing you back to port.'

Atri had just enough time to obey before green control streams jetted out of the Spinter's hull and grasped the Sphere.

'What're you doing?' Shaw moved forward.

'You're a quarantined lifeform,' Ninurta said simply. 'I thought we had an understanding. You're not to leave the Observatory. Imagine the panic if you'd arrived on Anatak-'

'We didn't go anywhere near Anatak,' Shaw said. 'Atri was just taking us round the block.'

'Well,' Ninurta said evenly. 'He's old. He should know better.'

She cut the feed.

Shaw turned to David. He gave her a light shrug in response.

'Great,' Shaw muttered.

000

Ninurta was waiting in her office. A warm breeze passed through the room, stirring the the silky fringes on her colourful throws and cushions. Shaw folded her arms.

'Can I offer you a drink?' Nirnurta asked.

'No,' Shaw shook her head. 'Thank you. Why did you do that?'

Shaw could just see the shape of the Sprinter docking on the outer rim. It glittered in the summer sun.

'Let's cut a long story short, shall we? Your Sphere left an ion trail that we tracked when we realised you'd left orbit. You then proceeded through a wormhole,' Ninurta checked some notes on her glass tablet, 'N577 by the look of it. And much to our surprise, you managed to not only find Xisuthros' ship...but convinced him to let you on board. Why would you do that?'

'What's wrong with that?' Shaw asked mildly. 'He offered to see us. We were curious.'

'Dr Shaw, you're insulting my intelligence,' Ninurta put the glass tablet down. 'Do you have any idea how dangerous Xisuthros is? Immortality has taken away any compassion he once had and driven him mad with the pursuit of so-called perfection.'

'I'm sorry,' Shaw smiled disarmingly. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'You wanted answers,' Ninurta said simply. 'What did you find out?'

Shaw glanced at David.

'Nothing worthwhile,' she whispered.

'Mmm,' Ninurta grunted, unladylike, her smart eyes peircing. Shaw had the sense her bones were being examined for evidence. 'Has it occured to you that I might have just saved your life? Jushur wanted to have you shot down. I offered to fetch you myself. Atri is an old friend of mine,' she smiled at him.

Shaw saw Atri's face soften with subtle desire. Ninurta's apparently willingness to aid them left, right and centre suddenly had an explanation.

'So I'll ask you again. What did you find out? Our scanners can't penetrate his hull.'

Shaw blinked slowly in sudden realisation.

'You don't know what he's doing, do you?'

Ninurta shook her head.

'I was hoping you could tell me, Doctor.'

'An alien. Black, slimy, like a skeleton. They spit some kind of resin to build their nests. I saw burn marks, and schematics. It gestates inside a living host. He's turning them loose all over the galaxy.'

Ninurta's eyes travelled inexorably towards David.

'Show me, David.'

'Of course,' he pulled a thin cord out of his fingertip and plugged it into the computer. Images began to flash, uploading. Then he stepped aside.

Ninurta brought up the file complex and began to flick through. For a few minutes she scanned in silence, her photographic memory recording and filing. Then she passed the images of the dragons in their nest. Quicker than a snake strike she shot for the button to pause the video and stared.

'He said they were perfect. More perfect than us,' Shaw said bitterly.

Ninurta scanned a blueprint of their anatomy.

_'Anzillu._ It means...abomination. They were engineered as a biological weapon. They're a sentient virus. Their primary function is to eradicate a known genome...and replace it with their own. We deploy them at the end times. When the food is exhausted, they sleep and we destroy them. Then the planet can be terraformed and reseeded. They can't be recalled. Next to nothing can stop them.'

'You built them?'

'Many centuries ago, under other governance, I'm afraid.'

'How quickly do they spread?' Shaw asked.

'As quickly as their hosts can carry them,' Ninurta said simply. 'Xisuthros would know where to put them for maximum effect. In the right environment...we estimate they could colonise this galaxy in a few thousand years. Their numbers would be enough to require large scale deployment of a sound cannon. Which we hesitate to use on viable worlds.'

'What's that?'

'Simply put, it shakes apart matter at the molecular level, but afterwards, the soup left over must be reconstituted through a complex process, or it becomes inert and useless. Out policy is to put all viable worlds to use, and to waste nothing.'

Shaw folded her arms.

'We tried to outlaw Anzillu,' Ninurta said. 'But Xisuthros has always been obsessed with perfection. I'm sorry, Dr Shaw. If Anzillu is loose then we can do nothing but await the signs of infection and contain...as required.'

'What does that mean?' Shaw breathed.

'Anzillu are nitrogen based but their crystalline structure is so similar to yours that the cannon would destroy all human life,' Ninurta said softly. 'Our only defense...is the end of your world.'

'We have to warn them,' Shaw said.

'Doctor-' David said suddenly. 'Once...when I was still very young, I managed to access some files that strictly speaking...Mr Weyland wouldn't have been pleased to know I'd read. They detailed plans for an excavation, in the arctic. I believed at the time that Mr Weyland was searching for an organism, since his bioweapons research division had suddenly received a lot of funding from an unnamed source. There was evidence of an asteroid strike at the site, and when it was tracked back...the apparent path lead right to-'

'LV 223,' Shaw finished for him. 'It was never about our research. He must've thought he'd won the lottery. Alien Gods...and alien weapons.'

'Actually, it was LV 426. I'm afraid there is more to _that_ story than you might want to hear.'

Shaw turned to stare at him.

'Tell me,' she said, dangerously.

'You were never meant to make it home, Doctor. Once the samples were taken and your neural maps uploaded, there'd be little use for your bodies. I was given instructions to terminate on route. A fire, in the cryostatis circuitry. Then we were to continue to LV 426, where Mr Weyland intended to gather what he could of the organism. It was my job to analyse them on the way home.'

'While he wandered about, immortal,' Shaw said.

David nodded.

'So you broke your programming,' she continued.

'I thought it was my best chance of survival, Doctor,' he smiled softly. 'I believe Mr Weyland envied me. I had everything he didn't. Eternal youth. Immortality. I imagine I wouldn't have lasted long...once my purpose was done. He always had a rather throw-away attitude, I'm afraid. Mr Weyland had competitors. I knew four of them personally. I was sent to infiltrate their labs long before my face was made public. They'd pay in blood for the aliens. I very much doubt it'd be their _own_ blood.'

Shaw stared at him.

'It may be better to let sleeping dragons lie,' David said softly.

She closed her eyes.

'David may be right,' Ninurta said. 'If my understanding of your species is accurate, it seems unlikely that the data would be used altruistically.'

'No chance,' David smiled coolly.

'So what do we do?' Shaw whispered. 'You can't just leave them out there to die.'

'Doctor,' Ninurta said evenly. 'We will give you the chance to send an anonymous message to Terra, if you choose, but under no circumstances may the location of this Observatory, or our planet, be revealed to your governments. I must protect my people, no matter the cost. If it came to it, I would sooner order extermination than engage in a pointless conflict for something a silly as gold or silver. You do understand me, don't you?'

Shaw nodded.

'Yeah,' she murmured. 'I do. You were never going to let me go, whether I had Sinashi or not.'

'No,' Ninurta said. 'You must've known that when you came here. It's the price you paid for the truth.'

'The truth,' Shaw said bitterly. 'The _truth?_ That you made us because you _could_? That's all God had to say to me. That we weren't enough for him! What am I supposed to do with that? Just live with it, I suppose?'

'Do you think the answer is any different for an Igogi?' Ninurta asked. She shook her head gently. 'We're all just animals, Dr Shaw. If you traced out genome back, you know what you'd find?'

Shaw shook her head numbly.

'Spores,' Ninurta smiled sadly. 'We were seeded by spores.'

'And who seeded_ them_?' Shaw whispered.

'Whatever passes for their God,' Ninurta said. 'It's just science, Doctor. Don't let it get you down. Personally, I think if your race finds peace in belief, it may be kinder to leave their delusions alone.'

_What about my faith? _Shaw thought.

000

Shaw paced the riverbank. She buried her hands in her hair and tightened her fists. The pain only focused her anger. The river rushed by, throwing trickles of sparkling light as it hit underwater rocks. She looked up at the shadow of the planet, hanging like a ghost.

'Eli,' Atri stepped around a tree trunk.

Shaw exhaled slowly. She met his curious blue eyes.

'No matter what I do, I can't win. David's right. They _won't_ use it altruistically. They'll weaponise anything we send them...or anything that arrives on Earth. But...' she breathed out slowly.

'But the innocent people,' he supplied.

'Atri, when I got on that ship with David, I only wanted my answers. I wanted somebody to tell me _why_ Charlie had to die! Then Sinashi happened...and everything changed. I can't see past him. There's something _wrong_ with me.'

Atri smiled.

'There's nothing wrong with you. It's called Motherhood, Eli. Look, if you send the transmission, you're not responsible for what they do with it.'

'It doesn't work that way.'

'Yes it does,' Atri came closer. He put an arm around her waist and pulled her in. 'It does if that's what you_ choose to believe.'_

Shaw cast her gaze into the trees.

'That's not funny. Did David tell you that?'

Atri just smiled. Shaw gave in. After all this time, after all her resistance, she buried her nose in Atri's side and let him cuddle her.

'Eli,' he murmured softly. 'It's pretty simple really, when you get down to the basics. As far as I can see, they never did much for you except manipulate you into space to find an alien weapon...and kill your mate. I expect they'll have enough scientific brains to work out what anzillu are.'

'That's not good enough for me,' she said softly. 'I can't take the chance that they won't work it out fast enough. We have to send the message. I can't live with anything less.'

'Fine,' Atri shrugged. 'Whatever makes you happy. Just..._stay.'_

Shaw tilted her head back. She smiled at him.

'Now why would that be so important, hmm?'

He smiled a bit mischievously.

'I'd like to say it's _all_ for Sinashi...but I'm not a liar by nature.'

She grinned. She couldn't help it.

'I feel too small down here.'

Atri's eyes slid sideways. He licked his lips nervously. Then he crouched, his movements slow, as if he expected her to run.

'Better?' he asked, his blue eyes beautiful, peircing, sentient. He smiled.

'Yeah,' Shaw nodded.

Tentatively she touched his bare shoulder. He was warm, hairless, white. She knew his face far too well now to be afraid. Atri wrapped a gentle hand around her waist. She went warm and shifted a bit closer, hoping for more of the feeling that had haunted her all this time. Atri leaned in and kissed her softly, his fingers tight on her hip. She melted. She'd waited too long for this. She was desperate for him. His hands crept higher to pull her into his lap, to snag her wrists and draw them over his shoulders. His skin was baby soft, his skull warm and bare. She pressed closer, the ache intensified.

'I'm so sorry,' she whispered, when he broke the kiss to transfer his lips to her throat hungrily. 'I messed it all up for us.'

'Right,' he murmured. 'Fifteen years, Eli. I don't care about any of that. Fifteen years is nothing in the life of an Igogi. I'd rather have waited fifteen years for you to kiss me, than to have lived a whole lifetime without knowing you.'

'Oh my God,' she whispered, when he pressed her into his lap and returned to her lips, hungry, eager, wet.

'I always knew you'd be trouble, you and David,' he went on. 'Never begrudged you that. You're an adventure. So _stop_ apologising.'

Shaw kissed him back. His lips were soft and warm. He tasted unique, like his skin and totally different to Charlie or David.

'God, I don't even know where to start...with both of you...how is this even suppose to work?'

Atri wrapped his arms around her and picked her up.

'However we want it to work, it'll work,' he said.

'Atri! What're you doing? Where are we-'

'You'll see,' he started towards the house.

Atri found David reading his tablet in the living room. He put Shaw in his lap with a grin.

'Look what I found in the woods,' Atri knelt behind her. 'It decided to kiss me. What do you think I should do with it?'

Shaw flushed. David's eyes turned hungry. He leaned forward, his fingers hot and strong on her thighs.

'It's mine,' David said softly. 'But you're very welcome to borrow it. Be careful though,' David ran his hands a little higher. He got a little gasp for his trouble. 'It bites.'

'Very funny,' Shaw tried to sound confident but a warm hand brushed her waist from behind and David picked his moment to kiss her throat gently.

'I think it's enjoying this-'

'Both of you can just, stop, with the-' she gasped as David's thumbs came together at the apex of her thighs and her eyes fluttered._ 'It_...thing-' she stopped trying to talk.

'Sorry,' David murmured. He flicked the tip of his tongue against her ear lobe. 'Are you OK, Doctor?'

'Yes,' she managed breathlessly.

David smiled.

'Good.'

Atri pressed his lips to the nape of her neck.

'Do you want me to stop?' Atri rubbed her waist gently. She squirmed, soaking wet, flushed.

'No,' she made a little noise as David kissed her. He worked her backwards off the seat into Atri's chest.

Her fingers grasped at David's blazer. His eyes were on fire, his hands almost painful. He caught her mouth and kissed her. A sudden shift separated them and David turned her round and pushed her gently into Atri. David brushed her hair aside and kissed her neck.

Shaw hesitated. Atri's eyes held a well of unspoken feeling but he didn't say a word as he bent his head to kiss her.

A deeper kiss softened her, warm, familiar hands skimming up her inner thighs made her tremble. Then David tugged her clothes away gently and pressed his own naked body against her back. His hair was silky soft against her ear. Shaw whimpered.

'Oh God-' she said softly, as Atri's fingers ghosted over her nipples. He teased them gently.

'You're so...soft,' he murmured, licking a line from her clavicle to her left breast.

She gasped when he took it between his teeth. It went painfully hard. He did the same to the other one. Shaw grabbed him eagerly, her hands wandering over his muscular body. Then a hand slid between her legs and David found her core expertly and began to rub. She moaned. She reached down between their bodies and ran her fingertips over Atri's obvious arousal.

'Take it off?' she breathed against his lips. 'Please?'

He obeyed her. The robe fell away and he knelt there in all his glory, his erection intimidatingly large, whitish pink, veiny. Something shuddered deep inside her, something _pleasurable._ _Wow_, she thought dimly. She reached for it tentatively. It felt very human.

She wrapped her hand around it and pulled his foreskin back gently. Atri's eyes closed softly. Shaw edged closer, using her lips and teeth on his corded neck. He made a soft, breathy, happy sound and pushed his cock into her hand eagerly. David rubbed the tip of his erection against her lips, slick. He smiled, pleased. He found her strong reaction to Atri very encouraging.

David slid home gently, moving one hand to tease her nipple. She gasped, dropped her head into Atri's lap and took him into her mouth. He bucked desperately, his huge hands buried so gently in her hair. He breathed a curse in Igogi and his fingers tightened. He was so gentle it surprised her. He didn't thrust into her mouth, or pull her down.

She shifted closer, taking David with her. She sucked gently on Atri's cock and ran her tongue along the underside, let him gasp and beg for more before she took him as far as she could into her mouth. David read the cues of her body effortlessly and he began to push more deeply, touching a spot she loved. Shaw's hands tightened on Atri. David murmured a soft endearment against her back and pulled her in by her hips, just how she liked it. Her insides tightened.

'Oh God, David!' she broke contact long enough to gasp as David drove himself into her core, pushing a warm, hard point deep inside her that made her scream every time. She glanced up at Atri. He was watching her, his warm hands stroking little circles into her neck and shoulders. Shaw whimpered as David applied his fingertips gently to her clit. She came suddenly, shuddering. David knew how much she liked it when he kept still for this, so he did, enjoying every moment of the sensation of her insides writhing and tightening around him.

'David!' she caught him before he could release her to Atri. _'Please.'_

Atri watched, eyes dark, his whole body aching for more as David obligingly took her roughly from behind, his fingers leaving little white marks in her hips. Shaw threw her head back, spread wide and moaning until he shuddered, teeth white and put his forehead on her back. He stroked her ribs reverently and set her down on Atri's chest. Shaw panted for a minute, then she adjusted herself to rub gently against Atri's painfully hard cock. The Igogi wrapped both arms around her and tilted her head up for a kiss.

'I'm worried I'll hurt you,' he smiled gently.

Shaw picked herself up and tilted her hips. He poked deliciously at her entrance. She shuddered. She was so sensitive now that it wouldn't take much to push her over the edge again. She was counting on it. Atri gasped as she pressed down. He stretched her until it burned, until she frownd softly, her eyes closed. Atri restrained himself from even the smallest movement, but he wanted to flip her over and fuck her like a man wants water in the desert. He gripped the cushions instead of her legs. He didn't want to leave bruises.

David slid up close. The Igogi freed a hand and David leaned down and kissed him gently. Shaw made a surprised noise and stared, aroused by the sight of their tangled fingers and tongues. She grew suddenly wetter, goosepimpled, shivery.

She slid slowly down until he was as far as he could go. The burning, stretching pain ebbed away and she began to rock gently. Atri gave a little cry and held onto David, who melded their tongues together. His slow kiss was like fire, and Atri began to thrust upwards gently, too desperate to hold back completely.

Shaw rode him with escalating enjoyment, gone from pain to the most sublime pleasure. Atri grunted eagerly, one hand finally coming to grip Shaw's waist gently. She foung it strangely arousing to have him at her mercy like this. She found that rocking at a certain angle hit her cervix and made Atri arch and moan.

He brought his knees up, kicking pillows out of the way involuntarily as she wriggled, brought her knees up and began to ride him like a pornstar. David glanced up. Her skin shone, damp with sweat, Atri's impossibly thick, white cock disappeared into her body, dripping so wet that her lubrication glistened on her thighs. Atri looked up too, eyes heavy, full of need. He tensed, choked out a whispered encouragement and came so hard that he yelled. Shaw gasped as he pushed her up. He hit that spot that always drove her crazy and everything went pleasantly, blinding white. For a long time after she lay between them, sticky and a little bit sore. Atri rose once for the loo and came back only to kiss her neck and pull her into a gentle, warm cuddle. David followed, apparently cold, until they nested like three peas in a pod.

000

Ninurta waited on their arrival. She smiled at David and ushered them inside, misted the walls and gestured to the console.

'We've set the transmitters to a cycling algorithm. The message will beam from six of our ships in fragments, and we'll have to trust your technology to pick it up, and put it together. The first time they probably won't get it. The second or third they'll see a pattern. It won't reveal our location, or yours, but it'll be obvious to anyone who knows of the Prometheus mission who it came from, and why. You can sign your name at the end if you want, but know they might come looking for you. Think about the lives that might be wasted. Know that we'll never allow humans to find us.'

'David,' Shaw nodded towards the console. Wordlessly, David sat down and began to skim read.

'Everything seems to be in order,' he agreed.

'Send it,' she nodded.

000

The first night home since the message had been sent, Shaw curled against Atri on the settee. David had gone to fetch some snacks. Atri ran gentle fingers up and down her spine and played with her hair. He heard her breathing change when he toyed with the nape of her neck. She buried her nose in his lap and breathed out warmly against his cock. She knew he wore nothing under his robe.

'Eli,' he murmured softly, desire obvious in his voice.

Shaw smiled. She breathed out again.

_'Eli_.'

He picked her up and kissed her warmly. His mouth tasted like their last drink. He pushed her down on the sofa and covered her body with his, his hands growing wicked, teasing places he'd learned the night before. 'God, you're beautiful,' he smiled. 'Let me see you?'

Shaw let him tease her shirt up and over her head. He licked her nipples gently and put his smooth cheek against hers. Then he worked her leggings off and tossed them side with her panties. A second later he was between her legs, his tongue like burning torture, perfect. He teased her clit and pushed his tongue deep inside her. She put her head back, desperate.

'Atri-' she held his head.

'Are you sore?' he whispered, when he brought his mouth up to kiss her. She could taste herself. It turned her on.

'I'm OK,' she smiled.

'Good,' he sounded so eager.

He shed his robe in a practised flick of his belt and covered her in his body.

'Tell me if I get too heavy,' he murmured. Shaw ran her hands over his muscles and kissed him. She felt tiny next to him, but there was something dark and wonderful about that feeling. She liked it. He gathered up her legs and wrapped them around his waist. He worked himself inside her, pushing ever so gently until she gave, hot, wet, tiny. He sighed into her hair.

'God, yes!' Shaw wriggled to get him deeper.

'Yes!' she cried suddenly, when he thrust a bit too roughly.

She yanked the hair elastic out of her ponytail and tossed it over the room. She grabbed his hand and buried it in her hair. She squeezed it until it closed, pulling on her hair. It hurt. It was exactly what she wanted.

'Pull it,' she whispered.

He did. Shaw tightened around him, crossed her ankles behind his back and moaned. He bit her nipple and she arched and dragged him down.

'Atri...I like it...I like being hurt.'

'What?' he murmured, anxiously.

She flushed.

'Please?' she asked softly.

Atri's lips tilted up.

'That's a dangerous game,' he murmured, tightening his grip until Shaw gasped. Atri's teeth became visible. He nipped the skin of her throat and drove himself home once, roughly. Shaw only opened her legs wider and pulled him in. 'You like it rough,' he murmured. 'Is it rape you want, Eli? Or just a bit of...pain,' he tugged.

She cried out, flooding wet downstairs. Atri kissed her gently. Shaw ground against him, her breathing growing ragged.

'Pain!' she admitted.

'Pain,' he repeated softly, as he drove into her harder. She nodded desperately.

'God, deeper, _please!'_

'If I go any deeper I'll tear you open,' he growled.

'I know,' Shaw whispered.

He smiled.

David returned with an armful of shopping. His first clue was the strewn clothing. The second were the noises. Shaw was begging. _Fuck me, take me, harder, oh God I love it when it hurts. Atri, deeper! Spank me!_

Then he heard the slap of skin on skin, and Shaw cried out. David followed the noises. There was a wet patch on the sofa. Atri's robe was laying on the ramp to the upstairs. He slid the groceries onto the kitchen counter and pursued the slippery, squelching noises, the grunts, the moans, the cries of helpless passion.

Shaw was tied to the bed post by her wrists with David's dressing gown tie. Her hair was a dishevelled mess, her bottom was pink from a good spanking. Atri was fucking her, his huge hands lifting her back end of the mattress as he drove into her. She gasped and whimpered, eyes all but rolling back, her body trembing.

'Doctor?' David murmured.

Atri smacked her backside again and grabbed her hair. A shiver went down David's spine, a terrible, awful realisation. This was turning him on. He hardened suddenly as Shaw turned to look at him. She choked as an orgasm rolled through her. Atri buried himself deeper, until she screamed and fell forward, gasping. Atri released her, sliding free, still hard.

David's smile grew.

'Doctor. I had no idea you had a taste for...this.'

'Neither did I,' Shaw gasped, as Atri released her hands and gathered her close. She grinned at her new lover, her fingers playing on his muscles. 'He's so strong, David. It bloody_ hurts_-'

'You _asked_ me to make it hurt,' Atri pointed out.

Shaw nodded. Satisfied and yet, still hungry.

'Watching you scream-' David said softly, as he closed in on them. Atri caught him and pulled him down. David settled happily into Atri's lap, his stronger, firmer body somewhat better equipped to take what Atri could deal.

'I've often wondered...if pain could be made pleasurable,' David said.

Atri squeezed his backside a bit too hard. David squirmed, his eyes closing.

'Want to find out?' Atri kissed his throat softly.

David nodded.

000

Sinashi came home on leave eight months later. He found the three of them naked in the kitchen. Atri had a Kiss The Cook apron that he'd stolen from David hanging off his nearly hard privates. Shaw was pressed against the kitchen counter, and David was smeared with the fruit salad he'd been trying to prepare.

Sinashi dumped his bag unceremoniously by the front door and cleared his throat.

'Shit!' Shaw yelped. She ducked behind the counter to hide her nudity.

Atri laughed and snatched the apron over his manhood. David peeled the kiwi fruit out of his hair and put it in the bin. He was hidden by the mixer anyway.

'I'll go see Onyx, shall I?' Sinashi smirked. 'Give you chance to er...compose yourselves.'

Shaw ran upstairs for her clothes.

When he came back, Shaw threw her arms around her son and he picked her up and gave her a bear hug with arms strong enough to bruise. Atri came next. Sinashi was nearly as broad as he now. David followed, a shy grin on his face when Sinashi pointed out he smelled like fruit.

'You're an odd bunch,' Sinashi grinned at them. 'But I don't care. So long as you're all happy.'

'Happier for you being home,' Atri said. 'Welcome back, lad.'

000

Shaw stood alone on the patio with Sinashi. Her son smiled at her. He'd shed his flight suit and put on a bathrobe over an old pair of jogging bottoms.

'I missed you. All of you. So much.'

'We missed you too, love,' she put her arm around him. 'It's been hard. When do you go back?'

'A fortnight,' Sinashi said. 'It's odd, you know. I mean...you all in some kind of...three way...relationship. But I suppose weirder things happen.'

'We didn't plan on you just walking in unnanounced and seeing it in action.'

Sinashi smirked.

'It was supposed to be a surprise. I sure was. Surprised,' he smirked.

'I'm sorry. We've always been close, Sinashi. You know that.'

'I couldn't choose between Father and Atri anyway. So this is sort of...perfect. This way we'll be together forever. I like having a big family.'

Shaw tugged him inside.

'Tell me about school. I want to hear everything.'

'Alright,' Sinashi followed, smirking. 'I'll trade you. I want to know what's been going on here. Though...not the gruesome parts. Obviously.'

* * *

><p>One more chapter to go. Coming soon!<p> 


	12. Aliens

Butterflies 12 – Aliens

Shaw woke sharply in the middle of the night. There were lights on everywhere. _Unsual._ She unmisted the walls. Her eye was drawn to the outer rim, lit up like a supernova.

'Oh my God!' she shook David. 'David! Get up!'

Atri stirred at her back. When he saw the light he catapulted awake and grabbed her.

'The ships are leaving!' she yelled.

'Get dressed,' Atri said. He pulled his robe on roughly.

Shaw was pulling on leggings, a shirt and coat when Atri went to fetch his Sphere. David followed her outside. Igogi ran to the public hoverpods, carrying children. They pods were like a river of lights all flowing in the same direction.

'They're evacuating,' David said.

'Yeah,' Shaw breathed in shock. _'Why?'_

Then the whir of engines cut through the shouts and calls and Shaw spun. A ship hovered over the lawn, but it wasn't the Sphere. It was a fraction of the size of a Sprinter but a very similar shape. A glowing doorway appeared in the underside as it hovered, blasting the roses flat with the heat from its engines. Sinashi appeared in the doorway. He swung down from the bottom railing and grabbed his Mother in a tight hug.

'God, I thought you'd be dead. Get onboard now. It's an outbreak. Some kind of virus. _Anzillu_, they said. They'll come looking for survivors soon, and anything they find, they'll destroy.'

Then Atri came running up the path, the glowing Sphere only the size of a tennis ball, packed down into nearly no mass at all.

'Sinashi?' he frowned. He ran through the wind effortlessly.

'No time to explain. Get on board. My ship's faster than yours. I was supposed to take it round the block to run the new engines in. It's state of the art. But we're not coming back. Anatak is infected too.'

Shaw glanced back at the house they'd called home for fifteen years. She let Sinashi lift her into the cargo bay. David came after, then Atri pulled himself up, muscles bulging. Somewhere off in the darkness, the sound of chomping shook Shaw from her shock. Sinashi hit the button to close the airlocks and the ship sealed the door seamlessly with an odd, liquid metal.

By the time they'd all jogged up the corridor, Sinashi was already in the control chair. He slid his helmet on with one practised hand and laid his palms over the control streams.

'You sure you can fly this thing, lad?' Atri approached from behind.

'Don't be ridiculous,' Sinashi's voice came over the speakers. 'I can fly anything up a Galaxy Class no problem at all.'

'Go, lad!' Atri grinned, over the roar as the engines fired.

The ship jumped into space, leaving nothing but a scorch on the grass. It snapped through the membrane shield that protected the Observatory, setting off alarms and whipped into space. Inside the helmet, Sinashi dodged and zigzagged through a complex pattern of ships. Some were leaving Anatak with civilians, others were military ships coming the other way.

He evaded the Monster - the mothership from which the General relayed his orders, and turned the ship around.

'Time to see the other half of my family tree,' he murmured, not realising he could still be heard.

The ship lashed through the lightspeed barrier and disappeared into a yawning wormhole. Everything went quiet. Resistance slipped away. Sinashi watched the readouts like a hawk, intent on picking up anyone that might be following. Nobody did. Eventually, when he was certain they'd escaped, he engaged the autopilot and hopped down.

'I'm done with the fucking army,' he announced, taking off his helmet. He dug fingers into the hem of his sleeve. It peeled back intelligently to reveal needle marks in his arms. He showed them to his family. His eyes burned furiously. 'This is what they did to me, when I refused to kill a man for no reason. I'm too gentle, they said. Too_ human_. Well they can shove it up their arse. I'm a free man now. I'll never go back.'

'Jesus, Sinashi,' Shaw whispered.

'If they catch us, I'm dead,' he went on. 'Desertion is punishable by death. So they can't catch us. We're going somewhere that they won't look. With a stop over on Earth, to warn them. I hope they're ready for first contact.'

A black nose protruded from one of the open doors and in came Onyx, walking unsteadily on the unfamiliar surface.

'_Hells_,' Sinashi went to grab his beak. 'He was locked in. I think he's figured out how to open the gate.'

Shaw turned to David.

'If we're going to arrive on Earth with all this information...in an alien ship...we'd better figure out what we're going to say.'

'I think..._We come in peace_,' David smiled.

Shaw just smirked.

'Yeah. That ought to do it. We're going home, David. Bloody hell.'

David nodded.

'Yes. It seems we are.'

000

Deep in the cargo hold, the aerobatics had dislodged a single silver vessel. It lay open on the metal grid floor, it's internal glass baubles shattered. A greenish black goo leaked out, binding to the bacterial lifeforms that had been living onboard since it's last time in dock. Somebody had simply forgotten to clean the floors. Over the next few hours, the heat from the engines incubated it. It began to breed. It began to crawl. It learned how to walk. It found the air vents and learned to climb. It smelled the telltale scent of life, and moved towards its future, sniffing, hunting. _Hungry._

END.

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><p><strong>AN - Well, there we go. It didn't go as planned. It was one hell of a challenge to write. I tried to take a step away from my usual more verbose writing style into something similar to the style of a screenplay, mainly because I wanted the reader to work out his own details and images. I'd like to know how I did.  
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**I can see (frustratingly) a lot of things I'd like to have done differently. I was tempted to take it down and edit, but I feel like I'd rather leave it as it stands, since people have already read it like this. **

**This story has taken me roughly 200 hours to write. I worked for about 10 hours a day for about 20 days, and that's a conservative estimate! I had to write quite a lot of material that never even got into the final draft.  
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**It'd take another 200 to mould it into a full length novel and insert more backstory. I'd like to have written more Xisuthros and Ninurta, and more politics but it's simply too much time to invest. I tried to build it so that the imagination can fill in the blanks and run wild with what might have been going on behind the scenes.**

**This is absolutely designed to be the second in the series of 3 Prometheus stories, starting with the movie. I'll be interested to see what they put in the movie. More adventure I expect!**

**Please let me know what you think. Thanks and I hope you enjoyed!  
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